Prospect of safe water looks bleaker

Neil Ray | Published: March 24, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Of the 10 countries facing crisis of safe water, Bangladesh finds itself in the number seven slot. This was revealed by the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the eve of the World Water Day observed worldwide on March 22. The fact that 26 million people have no access to safe water in the country does not speak highly of the country's water management and its distribution. Right to safe drinking water, as endorsed by the United Nations as a fundamental human right and made a condition for attainment of the millennium development goals (MDGs), is yet to be appreciated in its letter and spirit. This is not just a case in this country alone but across a wide swathe of the world where two-thirds of the planet's population live in. China, India and Nigeria have the major share of such people who are deprived of safe drinking water. In China the number of such people is 108 million and in India it is 99 million.
In the case of Bangladesh, the problem is growing acuter particularly in urban slums in addition to the endemic crisis prevalent in hinterlands. In fact, the situation has been worsening further because of the drying up of sources of surface water. The withdrawal or diversion of water in the upper riparian region has told on the water flows in the rivers on the Bangladesh side. Then the problem has been further compounded by heavy withdrawal of ground water for irrigation and, in case of Dhaka and Rajshahi cities, for water supply to the inhabitants there. Invasion of saline water in the country's south and south-west mostly due to shrimp cultivation and lately on account of washing away of embankments in several coastal areas by consecutive cyclones Sidr and Aila have posed a serious threat to lives and livelihoods of a large number of people there.
The fall of ground water table together with the invasion of saline water does not augur well for the country. More so, because rainfall is far less than before. Ground water needs to be adequately recharged. In wider areas today, crop fields no longer go under water during the monsoon as before. Flood protection dams and embankments constructed with the aim to grow IRRI crop now do not allow the monsoon water to submerge such lands. This is one of the reasons why groundwater cannot be recharged and to make the matter even worse, the lands are deprived of the alluvial cover such water carried along with it. Now the scarcer monsoon water is carried through to the sea.
The country is filling up its water bodies without giving enough thought to its consequences. There is a need for arresting a portion of such water in water bodies or reservoirs. In Rajsthan, India an ingenuous method has been developed to accumulate water in crop fields by making good use of stones which are abundantly available there. Earlier those waters ran away leaving the entire area arid and perched during the lean season. So here is a local solution depending on the condition and available resources. It is time Bangladesh concentrated on issues like this in order to arrest rain water and monsoon water in locally developed reservoirs. The important thing is to lessen dependence on ground water and increase the use of surface water. If there is enough water, a portion of it can be treated for safe drinking. But if water is not available, the question of its treatment even does not arise.Â Â Â Â Â Â Â