Water crisis in Dhaka city

Of late, there is an acute water crisis in Dhaka city triggered by rapid growth of population and indiscriminate urbanisation making the available civic facilities inadequate. Although Bangladesh is not in short supply of water, but there remains a lack of safe water. The city of Dhaka being the nerve centre of employment, communications and development activities, people from all over the country move into the city in quest of a better life and thus exert additional pressure on the infrastructure and water resources. In this way, the water bodies are being filled up to accommodate rapid urbanisation destroying the city's ecosystem.

As a result of expanding infrastructure the rainwater can no longer replenish the groundwater reservoirs. The water supply management in the city is more dependent on underground sources than surface water waters. This is making the water supply process more expensive and complicated. The quality of water sources is deteriorating due to various man-made and natural causes posing threats to our water, atmosphere and biodiversity. Manufacturing and household waste are continuously polluting the water in rivers surrounding Dhaka city, a fact that has become a major concern for us. During the rainy season the water bodies around Dhaka are filled up and a significant quantity of surface water also run off into the streams and rivers.

During the summer season, we often find inhabitants of different parts of the capital facing a severe shortage of water. The situation is sometimes so acute that the residents have to wait round the clock for getting water supply. In some parts, water supply remains suspended for days together. The WASA authority blames declining ground water level and technical problems in some pumps for shortage of water supply. The situation does not improve noticeably despite repeated assurances by WASA.

Last but not least, the water bodies in and around the city are either drying off or becoming extinct due to rapid urbanisation. The government should do something sustainable to solve this problem quickly and stop water crisis from becoming a major problem in urban life.

The writer is pursuing M.A in ELT at Jahangirnagar University.