Importance of fresh water

Price fluctuation of crude oil is the talk of the world but it has alternative renewable energy. What about groundwater in our country, the level of which is depleting fast. Reports have it that by 2050, five billion people will have inadequate access to fresh water. Without it human race cannot survive. Water may be a cause for political turmoil. In many places, fall of water level has led to salinity and arsenic contamination. The government has taken initiatives for more use of surface water via treatment plants. But this is not enough for a huge population.

The government must encourage private sectors to get involved with water treatment and raise mass awareness about proper water usage and against wastage. Rainwater harvesting has been adopted by many people and is gaining momentum but we have to find ways of storing massive annual floodwater, which if preserved, will be a reliable cheap source of water but mostly floodwater brings misery and loss of public property only to drain into the Bay of Bengal.

Rafid Alam

Graduate NSU

rafid.alam@northsouth.edu