"Whenever we ask Wasa officials, they say there is no land for installation of a new pump, although the local ward commissioner allocated his own plot for pump installation," said Mohammad Swapan, a local resident.

"We have been complaining to Wasa for ages, but there was no response," Swapan said.

Locals identified Shahidnagar, RND Road, Jagannath Shaha Road, Bouddhopara, Doiloti Bazar, Amligola, GN Shaha Road and Shashan Road as the hardest-hit areas in Lalbagh.

"The water crisis in the city turns serious in summer, as demand goes up 10 percent. Old Dhaka residents are facing the water shortage because of rundown pumps and worn-out pipelines," a Wasa official said.

Kohinoor Begum, another resident of Lalbagh, said: "Water shortage is commonplace. We wait in a long queue for water every day."

"We can somehow manage drinking water, but it is hard to get water to wash clothes and take shower," she added.

Water supply from a lone and rundown pump, installed at Shashan Ghat Road, cannot meet the demand of all.

The pump, installed during the rule of HM Ershad, lifts water only two hours a day and the output of the pump has decreased a lot over the years, another Wasa official said.

"We collect water in pitchers during the two-hour supply, but that is not enough for a day," Nahar Latif, a housewife, told Star City.

Nazrul Islam, a pump worker, said it has now become difficult to supply adequate water to all residents. "We have a generator to run the pump during power outage, but our supply is not adequate as the output of the pump went down almost 50 percent."

A regional Wasa staff at Chadnighat denied the allegation saying: "There is water shortage in Lalbagh but this is not serious. The water supply increased, so did the number of residents. It is hard to cope with the ever-rising demand."

Wasa sources said a new deep tubewell can solve the problem. The authorities decided to set up a pump at Shaid Nagar two years ago but could not do so, as there was no land for installation. "It's not our duty to acquire land for pump installation," the Wasa official said.

Mosharaf Hossain Khokon, local ward commissioner, said, "I have given Wasa two khatas of my own land and sent all papers to officials, but they are yet to respond."