It is good to know that the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority has planned to reduce dependency on the ground water and, according to a report published in this newspaper yesterday, it will supply 70 per cent of supply water from the surface sources instead of groundwater by 2021. Replacing use of ground water with surface water by 70 per cent within a short span of three years seems to be rather ambitious, but the merit of reducing dependency on ground water as a whole is highly recommendable as the ground water level in Dhaka has been declining by three metres every year.

With the decline of ground water level, the city’s land surface is also going down inch per inch overtime. The gradual decline of ground water is not only taking place in Dhaka, the scenario is overall same in the country and statistics revealed that around 5,000 shallow tube wells across the country will not be able to extract water due to the declining ground water within a year.

Bangladesh is observing World Water Day today with the theme “Nature for Water” and on this occasion all concerned people in Bangladesh should realize that if a nation like Bangladesh that is exposed to various climate change challenges fails to protect whatever natural is left for it, the future may be grimmer than what people usually think. With the greatest concentration of population in the world living in Bangladesh, nature here is already threatened. That is why the judicious use of its nature is the only option left for Bangladesh to live better environmentally.

For reducing dependency on ground water, it is important to listen to what the experts point out as remedial measure such as increasing vegetation, linking the beels and canals with rivers by increasing navigability through dredging, and going for surface water to reduce dependency on groundwater. If finally waters of the Buriganga, Shitalakhya, Turag and Balu can be given back to their naturalness through the ongoing river linking project, it will be a great service done to these rivers and Dhaka’s living standard as a whole.

For reducing dependency on ground water, the rainwater harvesting is also a very good idea. In fact, in many countries bright prospects have opened up through preserving rain water. In the rainy season, Bangladesh gets plenty of rain and creation of water reservoirs in strategically important places can greatly support our need of drinking water and other daily purposes. The sooner Bangladesh reduces its dependency on ground water the better for it environmentally.