Letters to the editor

Strategies for longer term water availability

Sir,                                             
On the World Water day on March 22 last  year UNICEF and WHO published a joint study according to which as many as 26 million Bangladeshi people do not have access to safe drinking water. The UN General Assembly has declared water to be a basic human right yet the unfortunate fact is that many Bangladeshis are suffering from lack of safe drinking water.
 This is the result basically of bad management–too much water being used where it is not needed and too little where it is much needed. As we know Bangladesh’s population is ballooning. Climate change is making glacial water supply uncertain. Reduced snow-melts sometimes lead to less water in the system. Rainwater is wasted for lack of storage reservoirs. In addition to wasting, Bangladesh is also contaminating its water. Untreated industrial and domestic effluent is being discharged into rivers while unregulated pesticides from farms are finding its way into streams and groundwater. The existing water storage infrastructure is ageing and is unable to cope with the rising demand. The problem of water scarcity is expected to become more acute in the future due to the adverse impact of climate change.
In Bangladesh there is an urgent need to address water management issues in line with the future requirements in a more decentralised manner through promotion of rain water harvesting and ground water recharging.   Rainwater harvesting, a low-cost system that collect and store rainwater for year-round use, offers a cost-effective and practical solution to ease our water crisis.  If rain water harvesting is undertaken in a serious manner here, it could help conserve groundwater and recharge the water table. About 150 billion litres of rainwater could be harvested during the monsoon season alone. The development of a rainwater harvesting plan that is economically and technically feasible for the majority of the people in Bangladesh must be given high consideration as a part of the integrated water resources management plan.
We cannot drink saline water. But, saline water can be made into freshwater. The process is called desalination. Time has come for Bangladesh also to look to the sea to get large scale supply of water after desalination.

Mahmud Rashid
Bailey Road, Siddehswari, Dhaka

Letters to the editor

Strategies for longer term water availability

Sir, On the World Water day on March 22 last year UNICEF and WHO published a joint study according to which as many as 26 million Bangladeshi people do not have access to safe drinking water. The UN General Assembly has declared water to be a basic human right yet the unfortunate fact is that many Bangladeshis are suffering from lack of safe drinking water. This is the result basically of bad managementtoo much water being used where it is not needed and too little where it is much needed. As we know Bangladeshs population is ballooning. Climate change is making glacial water supply uncertain. Reduced snow-melts sometimes lead to less water in the system. Rainwater is wasted for lack of storage reservoirs. In addition to wasting, Bangladesh is also contaminating its water. Untreated industrial and domestic effluent is being discharged into rivers while unregulated pesticides from farms are finding its way into streams and groundwater. The existing water storage infrastructure is ageing and is unable to cope with the rising demand. The problem of water scarcity is expected to become more acute in the future due to the adverse impact of climate change. In Bangladesh there is an urgent need to address water management issues in line with the future requirements in a more decentralised manner through promotion of rain water harvesting and ground water recharging. Rainwater harvesting, a low-cost system that collect and store rainwater for year-round use, offers a cost-effective and practical solution to ease our water crisis. If rain water harvesting is undertaken in a serious manner here, it could help conserve groundwater and recharge the water table. About 150 billion litres of rainwater could be harvested during the monsoon season alone. The development of a rainwater harvesting plan that is economically and technically feasible for the majority of the people in Bangladesh must be given high consideration as a part of the integrated water resources management plan. We cannot drink saline water. But, saline water can be made into freshwater. The process is called desalination. Time has come for Bangladesh also to look to the sea to get large scale supply of water after desalination. Mahmud Rashid Bailey Road, Siddehswari, Dhaka