Everyone needs to be worried about water security, pollution and the environment. We need to accord these factors the priority that they deserve.
As we observed World Water Day on March 22, we were reminded once again about the precarious decline, in the strategic context, of our water security - both in terms of future availability and present supply and storage. A potential crisis is there related to the problem of right to water, the commodity, which is as precious as clean air not only in the Bangladesh context but also globally.
The problem of sharing and managing water resources that we face today includes some serious and complex issues. This, in turn, has given rise to crises, which, unless tackled with care, may lead to instability and conflict.
Certain areas of the world are faced today not only with dwindling freshwater supplies and inequitable access but also with a growing corporate control of water sources. Juxtaposed, they are emerging as serious strategic threats to sustainable development as well as to survival. This brew is also being further compounded through climate change from fossil fuel emissions and conflicting greed for freshwater - between nations, rich and poor, public and private interest, rural and urban populations and the competing needs of the natural world as opposed to the industrialised economies.
Hydro-geologists generally agree that around the world, there are about 215 major rivers and 300 groundwater basins and aquifers shared by two or more countries. This factor has led to continuous debate over ownership and management. Growing shortages and unequal distribution of water have caused disagreements, sometimes violent, and these have evolved into security risks. This has led politicians like Britain's former defence secretary John Reid, warning of coming "water wars." Climatologists have also predicted that violence and political conflict might become more likely as watersheds turn to deserts, glaciers melt and water supplies are polluted. Such a crisis is already being played out on a tragic scale in several areas in Africa.
We, in Bangladesh, are also watching with dismay the dual disaster of depleted water supply in the Teesta River and also the creeping salinity that is affecting groundwater in our coastal areas. A recent study carried out by the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) and the Institute of Water Modeling (IWM) has concluded that the aquifer saline zone will increase by 2.27 per cent by 2050 while fresh water zone will decrease by 3.44 per cent - not good news at all.
China and India have problems with the Brahmanpara River. The same river has also been the cause of tension between Bangladesh (a lower riparian) and India. Consequently, reports that China might divert the river water for irrigation purposes is being carefully watched and monitored by both India and Bangladesh. There is also the serious question of diversion of water flowing down the Ganges from India into Bangladesh. Unilateral withdrawal of water in the upper reaches of the Ganges by several Indian States has already reduced supply at the entry point near the Bangladesh border. This has affected agriculture through irrigation and also greatly increased salinity through seepage in Bangladesh's southwestern coastal areas and northwestern regions. It has also impacted on the environment and potential for livelihood of the inhabitants of these regions. Increase in rural unemployment has, in turn, led to migration of millions to urban areas, taxing the existing poor infrastructure (housing, availability of pure drinking water and sanitation).
Environmental activists in Bangladesh have been expressing their concern not only over the prospect of reduced availability of clean drinking water but also over the continuing pollution of major water sources (caused by growing industrialisation). They are also pointing out that the water tables of the immediate surrounding areas of mega-cities like Dhaka or Chittagong are steadily falling due to soaring demand created by increase in population and industrial needs. Dr. Moshiur Rahman, Secretary of the Bangladesh Poribesh Bachao Andolon has recently stated that Bangladesh's groundwater level has been dropping by 1.4 per cent every year for the last 30 years (1980-2010) due to excessive extraction. One could sum it all up by saying that a complex issue is becoming even more intricate and sensitive.
Water has become a key strategic security and foreign policy priority for Bangladesh. It is not just availability of water as a resource or as a source. Other factors have crept in.
Our policy planners need to address water security issues with utmost seriousness. Efforts and perspective planning in this regard should include finding the necessary energy to extract water from underground aquifers, transporting water through pipelines and canals, managing and treating water for reuse and desalinating brackish and sea water for use in the coastal areas. If need be, this could be undertaken through a public-private partnership, with private sector providing the necessary technology and funding support. Management of such enterprises could also be done through public and private joint endeavour.
Time has come for Bangladesh to understand that it is in our national interest to view water as the most important factor for our future stability, security and economic development. We have to learn to link water security with national security. We have to start developing the technology necessary to find solutions. We, a densely populated country, with little natural resource must start taking water security more seriously. Perspective planning in this sector has to be broader, more comprehensive and more integrated.
In this context, it would be important for all stakeholders in our country to treat this issue as a common end that is not confined solely to individual business interests. We have more water than we can handle during the monsoons and floods. At other times we have massive draughts that affect agriculture, the environment as well as economic opportunities. To that has been added the threat of arsenic poisoning. This uncertainty has been made further complex through climate variability.
The Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWASA), it needs to be noted, appear to be taking a few pragmatic steps. As explained by them, they apparently collect 78 per cent of their water through 685 deep tube wells. The rest comes from surface water treatment plants. WASA is now trying to reduce the pressure on underground water and is now in the process of implementing some major projects in this regard. The Padma (Jashaldia) Water Treatment Project will generate 450 million litres of water per day, the Gandharbpur Water Treatment Project will generate 500 million litres from the Meghna River and the Syedabad Water Treatment Project (Phase-3) will provide 450 million litres of additional water from the Meghna River. WASA has explained that these projects have been undertaken to stop the ground water table depletion and ensure environment-friendly water management system for Dhaka city and the adjacent areas of Narayanganj. One hopes that these projects will soon come on-stream. Analysts have, however, correctly pointed out that while WASA is undertaking these crucial steps, it also needs to ensure that the water that they will be supplying to the consumers will be clean and fit for drinking. This is being stressed given the extraordinary pollution that takes place through discharge of untreated life-threatening industrial wastes and pollutants and toxic run-off from dyeing and finishing factories (both textiles as well as leather) directly into water in rivers and streams. Absence of effluent-treatment facilities and plants and strict enforcement of related rules and laws are compounding the problem.
The relevant agencies of the government need to proactively engage with various facets of this critical issue that casts a long shadow on prospects of our sustainable growth. We need modulated advocacy and awareness building programmes towards adopting of durable water management methods. We also need to seriously consider improving the quantity of water available in the rivers surrounding Dhaka, particularly the Buriganga. This could be done through the re-linking of the Dhaleswari and Kaliganga rivers at their confluence. This will regenerate the flow of the Buriganga River.
What is needed now is political will based on the understanding that water, particularly clean water, is a fundamental human right for all citizens of the world. We have to create conditions for a concerted and collective regional collaboration based on the principles of water conservation and equity in terms of management and usage.
The writer, a former Ambassador, is an analyst specialised in foreign affairs, right to information
and good governance.
mzamir@dhaka.net
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