Around 26 million people of the country still do not have access to safe drinking water sources, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Water is otherwise the very essence of life. Yet three-quarters of a billion people of the world - mostly the poor and the marginalised-are deprived of this most basic human need.
Access to drinking water is, however, one of the biggest successes of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But for 748 million people around the globe, just obtaining this essential service remains otherwise a big challenge.
In Bangladesh, the UNICEF has used an exciting new approach to collect rainwater and then pump it into shallow aquifers, achieving water security for approximately 1.0 million people for whom groundwater had become salinised.
On the whole, some 2.3 billion people have gained access to improved sources of drinking water since 1990. As a result, the MDG target of halving the percentage of the global population without access at that time was reached five years ahead of the 2015 deadline.
In Bangladesh, natural sources of fresh water, especially rivers, are getting highly contaminated with industrial effluents and human waste, causing serious hazards to public health and ecological system. The rivers around the capital are polluted due to mindless dumping of untreated waste and effluents that contain heavy metals and residues of toxic chemical.
Salinity and arsenic pollution still pose major threats to the availability of the sources of safe water in Bangladesh although according to official statistics, 97 per cent of its population get safe drinking water. Unplanned use of water, as the analysts note, is the key obstacle to sustainable development.
Besides, rainwater, the purest form of natural water, is callously wasted by letting it run off and merge with polluted rivers in the absence of a proper harvesting system.
Most industries in and around the capital release untreated effluents directly into the Buriganga, Shitalakhya, Balu and Turag rivers, taking advantage of the authorities' lax attitude towards enforcing environmental laws and regulations.
River water is, in fact, turning unsafe for drinking because of rampant release of untreated human waste and industrial effluents that contain heavy metals like chromium, cadmium, lead and mercury, and toxic chemicals.
More than 300 rivers in Bangladesh are polluted the same way. It makes river waters unsuitable for agriculture, fishing, household chores, and bathing. It also ruins the riverine ecological system and biodiversity.
Excessive accumulation of heavy metals through regular consumption of contaminated food and water might damage brain, liver, kidney and the nerves. Contaminated water could cause deadly hepatitis-A and E and typhoid, and eventually lead to liver failure, particularly among children and pregnant women.
According to the findings of WaterAid Bangladesh, more than 7,000 children under five die from diarrhoea while water-borne diseases cause nearly a quarter of total deaths a year in the country.
An official estimate says the groundwater table in Dhaka city depletes by around 0.3 percentage point a year with roughly 1.5 metres of annual recharge. Replenishment of the groundwater table is obstructed due to unplanned concrete coverage of the surface, and destruction of wetlands, open space and rivers.
However, the government has taken up mega projects, including Jasaldia (Mawa) and Gandhabpur (Narayanganj) water treatment plants, to bring water from the Padma and the Meghna, from a distance of 33 kilometres (km) and 23 km to supply surface water to the city dwellers.
Despite being the world's largest delta having an estimated 1,210 billion cubic metres of fresh water, the country depends mostly on groundwater for drinking and dry season irrigation in the absence of a sustainable water use plan.
About 98 per cent of drinking water and 80 per cent of dry season irrigation water comes from the groundwater reserve. Dangers thus loom large for increasing dependence on groundwater, and unplanned use of water resources of the country, crisscrossed by about 700 rivers and tributaries.
The over-extraction of groundwater lowers its level and increases salinity in coastal areas. When the groundwater level goes below the sea level, saline water flows inwards during tidal surge in rivers. Recent studies also show that fluctuations in groundwater level during dry and wet seasons lead to arsenic contamination of water.
However, allegation are galore that public organisations are least bothered about conserving groundwater, rainwater and water reservoirs as they are active only on water use from underground sources. The country will face adverse consequences about ensuring provision of drinking water in future if this trend continues.
Bangladesh is in the sixth position in underground water lifting in the world as it lifted 30.21 cubic kilometres of underground water. Even fields located near rivers are often irrigated using groundwater rather than that from river.
What is needed at this hour is to ensure efficient management of water in agriculture and industrial sectors for a sustainable development. Most industrial units in the country did not have effluent treatment plants and were, therefore, polluting rivers and water bodies with their wastes.
Implementing projects to preserve surface water, such as the Ganges barrage in Rajbari, and rain water harvesting system are otherwise deemed essential for the country. The Ganges barrage, when implemented, is expected to retain water of the trans-boundary river, known as the Padma in Bangladesh, during the rainy season for use over the rest of the year.
szkhan@dhaka.net
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