Shiuli Akter wakes before her 5:30 am alarm in the rented Kazipara flat she shares with her husband and child. What stirs her is not the clock but the daily struggle for water. Sometimes the overhead tank refills; sometimes it does not. When supply does trickle in, it is only temporary and foul-smelling.

Her ordeal is the daily reality for thousands in the Mirpur neighbourhoods of Kazipara, Manipur, Shewrapara and surrounding areas, where an acute water shortage has upended routine. Cooking, bathing and basic hygiene have become a trial. “Getting a single bucket of water has become a battle,” Shiuli said yesterday with exhaustion and frustration on her face.

Residents say the crisis has dragged on for months. Supply is erratic: in many areas water arrives just once a day, and only briefly; in others it disappears for two or three days at a stretch. People now stay awake deep into the night, waiting. Many have no choice but to buy water from Wasa tankers to meet urgent needs.

Abdul Karim, who lives in Manipur, described the punishing routine. “Sometimes the water comes around 2 am. Then everyone scrambles awake. We queue with buckets and drums. How much longer can this go on?”

Even where water does arrive, a fresh problem has surfaced — its quality. Residents report dirt, a foul odour, and at times a blackish tinge. Health risks mount. Nusrat Jahan, of Shewrapara, said: “I’m afraid to cook with this water. I have to boil it repeatedly before giving it to my children. Even then, I can’t feel safe.”

Mohammad is six, maybe seven. Rather than play after school, the first-grade student from the capital’s West Kazipara scours neighbouring homes, two five-litre plastic bottles in hand, in search of a single bottle of water.

“I don’t like fetching water from other people’s houses every day,” he said yesterday afternoon. “It’s hard, and many people tell me off. But without the water my mother can’t cook, and we need it for so many other things.”

His mother, standing beside him, described a household grinding to a halt. “There wasn’t a drop of water at home. I bought breakfast from a roadside eatery. It’s now well into the afternoon and I still haven’t been able to light the stove. My son came back from school asking for food, but what could I give him? That’s why I came out with him, hoping someone might spare us a little water.”

Tenants in West Kazipara buildings numbered 607, 608 and 609/2 say a water crisis has dragged on for three months. They receive supply only once a day. Some also cite neglect from their landlords.

In the adjacent Shewrapara neighbourhood, a tenant who asked not to be named said: “We pay our water and electricity bills on time every month. Yet in the past month we had water on only 10 or 12 days. The landlord lives elsewhere and takes no interest in this property. We stay up all night waiting, but not a drop comes through the pipes. Often we have to go to nearby areas just to shower.”

Landlords, however, ask, “If there’s no water in Wasa’s mains, where are we supposed to get it?” The utility supplies less than half the demand, they say, forcing them to ration water to a single shift per household. Complaints to Wasa elicit the same reply: the water table has dropped. Landlords say that when engineers visit, they offer a series of explanations and note that a falling water table is normal during the dry season.

The acute water shortage extends to South Pirerbag, off the capital’s 60-Foot Road, where Kohinoor Begum stood in a building’s basement clutching two five-litre bottles. She had left her rented flat — where supply is desperately tight — to draw water from the neighbouring property. The routine has lasted a month. Her building supplies water just once a day, occasionally twice. Whatever tenants manage to store must cover their every daily need. When it runs out, they turn to nearby buildings, most of which rely on deep tube-wells.

Dried-up mains have forced many families to buy water. Others sink private pumps to extract groundwater. Costs climb, and the water table sinks further. A Kazipara shopkeeper said he previously faced no separate water expense; now BDT 1,500 to 2,000 a month goes solely to purchasing water.

Residents of West Kazipara’s Bashundhara Goli, Central Manipur, East Manipur, lanes 5 and 6 of East Kazipara, Mirpur 6, Senpara Parbata, Shewrapara and West Agargaon all recount bitter experiences. The shortage ranges well beyond Mirpur. It is also the harsh daily reality in Mohammadpur, Mahakhali, Nakhalpara, Kuril, Nadda, Shahjadpur, Badda and other parts of the capital.

Locals accuse Dhaka Wasa of remaining largely indifferent to the protracted crisis. Md Emdadul Haque, executive engineer of Wasa’s Mods Zone-4, flatly denied the claim. “The complaints of a water shortage are completely untrue,” he told Banik Barta. “These areas receive regular, sufficient supply. A few tube-wells were damaged by a storm some days ago, which briefly disrupted supply in parts of Mirpur. We tried to maintain normality using Wasa tankers. The tube-wells are now repaired and supply is absolutely normal. If some buildings have line faults or technical glitches, that is a separate issue.”

He added: “If anyone lodges a complaint, we can check for water problems through our technology. If a problem exists, we try to resolve it immediately. And if someone makes a requisition for water, we try to supply it within a very short time.”