Salvaging sources of surface water

A roundtable discussion in Dhaka recently stressed the need to salvage surface water resources so that the city's growing demand could be met sustainably, that is, without depleting the underground acquifers beyond recovery. The alarming fact is, as a result of continued over-exploitation of underground sources through deep tubewells, both for safe drinking water and irrigation, the water level in these natural acquifers has been sinking by as much as three metres every year. Over-exploitation of underground water not only leaves acquifers severely depleted, they often cannot be replenished if the water level falls too low. This eventually leads to aridity and land subsidence -- a 'theory' that has been around since the past four decades at least, and no longer needs proof for both effects are manifest in Bangladesh. The depletion of ground water has also been linked by some quarters to the widespread arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh, affecting large swathes of people. So, talk of tapping surface water has long been overdue, even though most of the available sources have been rendered unfit for anything but scavenger fish. Indeed, some water bodies have literally turned into sewers! But in a monsoon-fed land, surface water protection and treatment would make far better sense than what we have been doing so far. Rain water harvesting is also a viable source that deserve attention. The history of 'development' in this riverine region over the past hundred years or so can be summed up with a prefix -- mal -- specially with regard to the use of its land and water resources. Myopic policies even now, in these environmentally wiser times, are more the rule than exception, and these continue to have appalling and lasting effects on the natural and built environment of Bangladesh. Consider the ink-black, stinking surface water sources in the much-pampered industrial areas. Any other nation with an iota of enlightenment would have considered such pollution criminal negligence of the highest order. Yet, precious little is being done to reverse this suicidal trend. In the moronic understanding of the policy-makers and polluters alike, everything lacks lustre in comparison to the MONEY the diverse polluting industries bring in! So no CIP can be booked for not installing an effluent treatment plant to filter poisons prior to draining liquid waste out into what used to be a sweet water source or some docile man's fertile cropland. Mal-development in fact has become a synonym for virtually every economic activity that involves the use of the God-given resources of this miraculously fertile land, through which some 200 rivers, rivulets and streams flow, big and small, enriching their paths with plenty of hoars, boars, beels and jheels. The misfortune of this ecologically well-endowed land is that dim-witted decision-makers and developers throughout the 20th century up to the present, have been in charge, wrecking the land's potential, which could have been ecologically one of the world's richest and most sustainable. It may safely be said that the rudiments of urbanisation in this region called Bangladesh began in the 1920s or so. Plunderers since then have been exploiting the natural resources with rapaciousness mindlessness. These strong sentiments may be pardoned if one considers the recommendations made in a 1920s master plan for the development of Dhaka. This plan had envisaged an ecologically and environmentally sustainable city with natural bounties like the Buriganga, its tributaries and distributaries and countless water bodies, woven into development in such a way as to yield the optimum benefits -- without killing the water sources. The banks of the Buriganga, for example, were to be developed into promenades and parks and the Buriganga itself conserved for navigation purposes. Of course, it is too simplistic to presume that the pristine beauty imagined a hundred years ago could have been protected from the onslaught of population growth and poverty. Mind-boggling numbers now compete for land and other natural resources, and the culture of mismanagement, rule-bending for those who have power, and exclusion of those who have none, have had their lasting impact on all the urban areas in Bangladesh. Everyone who is someone seems to be riding the environmental bandwagon, but a consistent, deep ecological concern for a sustainable future for Bangladesh does not seem to be on the cards yet. There may be some hope, though. Dhaka's plight as a result of many mindless trends does get reported these days. The focus on Buriganga, which has horrific amounts of solid waste and effluent drained into it, has remained steady for a long time but the polluters seem to be getting away with their crime right under the nose of the toothless 'authorities' -- such is the 'system'! In some cases the authorities do try to respond positively, but it seems corruption almost always wins over environmentally sustainable development or aesthetics. Recall the scramble several years ago for Ashulia, 30 km northwest of Dhaka, a vast area created as a catchment for the millions of cubic metres of floodwater from the river Bangshi. At least half a dozen developers had started filling up parts of this vast low-land, ostensibly, for the construction of 'model towns.' Needless to say, high-ups in government and political wheeler-dealers have always been found to connive with the more influential land grabbers. The result is: 'dream plots' in Ashulia have been on open sale despite the furore in the press over key players, at least one of whom had been behind bars during the last Caretaker Government. Ashulia has been created as a flood-flow zone and holds millions of cubic metres of water outside the Greater Dhaka Flood Embankment, which itself was ill-conceived by opportunists in powerful positions bent on minting money at any cost during General Ershad's regime. After having wrecked the natural drainage system of Dhaka by filling up most of the beels, jheels and khals in the zeal for so-called land-development, the powers-that-be then sought to 'protect' Greater Dhaka from flooding by creating a ring of embankment around it. Pumps were put in, ostensibly to drain out the rain water from within the 'protected' area. As anyone experiencing the horrendous waterlogging in the city from just a few hours of monsoon rain knows, the pumping system has been a complete failure from the start. All such unsustainable ideas are often cooked up by wheeler-dealers and assorted rent-seekers within the powers-that-be, to enrich themselves only -- and everybody else can go to hell. One hopes the plan to tap surface water would work out otherwise -- for the greater good -- by necessitating a massive clean-up of the polluted water sources as well as re-excavation of 'lost' ones.