DWELLERS of Chalna Municipality under Dacope upazila in Khulna have been facing crisis for safe drinking water for long. They are also facing water crisis for performing household chores including cooking and washing. Local people said the water collected from tube-wells and natural ponds and canals were generally saline and not drinkable and they had to depend on the only tube-well at the Dacope upazila parishad compound and only five active pond sand filters, out of 12, of the municipal area to meet their need for drinking water. They are compelled to use saline water from ditches, canals and rivers, the locals. Official sources in the municipality said the Dacope upazila headquarters in the Chalna area was declared as Chalna municipality in 2004. Though about 15 thousand people live in the 9.49 square-kilometre area of the municipality on the banks of the Chunkuri and Poshur rivers the municipal authorities are yet to take any step for providing its dwellers with safe water, the locals alleged. Though the municipality has 122 active shallow tube-wells, none of them is used for drinking water due to having salinity and iron more than tolerable limit, said official sources in the municipality. The affluent dwellers fetch water from long distances spending Tk 12 per container (20 litres per container) by waterway for drinking and Tk 3 to Tk 4 to collect per pitcher (15 to 20 litres) of water from different nearer places to use for cooking. They said at least one container of drinking water and two to three container of cooking water were needed for each family having five to six members and the middle class to rich people had to spend Tk 400 to Tk 600 a month for collecting water for drinking and cooking. On the other hand, they said, the poor people who cannot bear the expenses of collecting drinking and cooking water, have to drink water that they get from either nearby PSFs and tube-wells containing saline. Small trader Nitai Bachhar, 37, of Shahid Minar Road of the municipality said he needed Tk 450 to collect drinking and cooking water for his three-member family every month. He also said all of his family members were now suffering from skin diseases and they often suffered from waterborne diseases. Day-labourer Abdul Ahad of KC School Road of the municipality said his family used water from PSFs for drinking and tube-well water for cooking.