Recharging Dhaka's Ground Water

Md. Firoj Alam

Water table recharges through a natural process. It occurs as rain and surface water percolates down through the natural filter constitute of fine-grained soil to join with the ground water on an impervious layer. When a balance between this recharging and extraction is maintained, the ground water aquifer remains static. But it falls down when the extraction rate become higher than the rate of recharging. We can understand it only when our tube-wells cannot reach to the ground water level and fail to discharge any water. Desertification is the ultimate affect of the water table depletion. As we are predominantly depended on the ground water for our domestic, agricultural, and industrial use, we face water scarcity if the ground water table is depleted.

The ground water table of Dhaka city is falling down at an alarming rate. In last six years, the water aquifer of this city has gone at least 20 meters down: 3.3 meters per year. No doubt that the increasing gap between extraction and recharging is dipping the water level down.

The water table of this city is falling down because of withdrawing excessive water without keeping the scope for recharging. The issue of excessive withdrawal of the ground water is always being discussed and people are more or less aware about it. While people are almost ignorant and indifferent at the same time about the issue of recharging ground water. And consequently the general people, even the government are continuously obstructing the recharging process.

Let me shed some lights on this very crucial issue.

Dhaka is a city of 13 million people. To accomplish the demand of this huge numbers of population, DWASA alone is extracting about 1500 million liters of water from the ground every day against its actual demand 2000 million liters. The rest of the demand is being fulfilled through the private initiatives which is also ground water based. But due to the lacking of recharging, a deficient situation is always prevailing in the water table. Our lacking of awareness about this issue is making the problem critical day by day.

As I have told at the beginning that the surface and ground water percolates down through the soil to join with the water table. Therefore, exposure of the soil to the water is a must in the recharging process. But the entire part of the soil surface of this city is blocked with the buildings, metal roads, tiles and plastics that prevent the water to be soaked by soil allowing it to be run off. As a result, despite having the significant amount of rain fall [206 cm/year], the water table is failing to be arisen up. We the city dwellers have taken the subversive attempt by covering each and every inches of our land with cemented blocks.

Again, water bodies have an important role on the ground water table. Water from the water bodies continuously seeps into the ground. It is unfortunate that all of the water bodies inside and outside of the Dhaka city are being filled up and covered with the buildings. Many real estate companies are desperately filling up all of the water bodies situated at the periphery of the city. The earth filling extravaganza of some housing companies/ project like Basundhara, Basumoti, Modhumoti, Jamuna etc is alarming us that all water bodies near the city will be finished within the few years which will be a cause of the ground water exhaustion.

Even the rivers are drying out. The volume of water in the Buriganga, Turag, Kaliganga, Shitalakshya is decreasing relentlessly. The encroachers are desperately grabbing these rivers. We often see the activity of reclaiming Buriganga from the encroacher. But, recently I have seen that the Shitalakshya, are being openly violated by some greedy people. Near the Kanchpure bridge almost a quarter of this river has been cordoned with the sand bags disrupting the water flow. Such encroachment of the adjacent rivers on the one hand, and the pollution on the other hand has created pressure on the ground water of the Dhaka from the two angles: [1] the low water in the rivers is causing the low recharge of the water table and [2] people are becoming depended more and more on the ground water giving up their previous practice of use of the river water. In the decades of 1980's we might have seen that many people on the both sides of the Buriganga are using its water for bathing and washing. Now this scene is rare.

Our lifestyle is also creating a significant pressure on the water of this city. We are extravagant in water use. Through the conservative use we can downsize the quantity of daily water need. For example, most of us have the habit of keeping our tap running during the shower, brushing the teeth, washing hands or using toilets, that allows a lot of water to be run off . For say, a person needs 25 gallons of water for a regular shower, but this shower is possible to complete with 4 gallons if the water is preserved in a bucket and pour it on the body using a mug. Like this, 19 gallons of water can be saved from a single shaving if it is done with the stored water. We have no habit of reusing or recycling the water. We have forgotten that water is the most valuable thing and it is limited. The conservative style of using the water can help to reduce the pressure on the ground water of this city.

During the rainy season we find the street of the Dhaka city is flooded with the rain water, while many people do not have safe water for their daily use. This rain water could be harvested to meet a big part of water demand of the city dwellers from early April to late September of a year. By creating the habit and practice of using rain water we can reduce the pressure on the ground water of the Dhaka city.

We should remember that we have no more time in our hand as we are already at the edge of the danger. Therefore, to avoid a catastrophic circumstance, we should start the conservative and judicious water use practice right now.

Author: Md. Firoj Alam
Published in The Bangladesh Observer, January 11, 2005
Also available at Environmental Articles Archive: Water Resources
Web version prepared by BCAS
January, 2005

Weaving others' fortune with the yarn of own life

Md. Firoj Alam

Garments is a highly labour intensive industry in Bangladesh. Presently there are as many as 2,900 export oriented garments factories where more than 1.4 millions workers are working, and 80 per cent of them are female. More than 70 per cent of total export earning equivalent to $5 billion comes every year from this sector. Including indirect employment, this sector provides jobs for over four million people. It has created many backward linkage industries which also play an important role in our national economy. So it can be easily understood that the present base of the economy of this country is founded on the garments industry.

But if we go back to the decade of the 1970s, we find that there was no existence of garments industry in any real sense. In the year 1978, there were only nine garments factories, employing only 200 workers. The sector's contribution to the economy was simply insignificant then. But after 25 years, the garments sector has become the main contributor to the economy, and it is surviving quite efficiently in the competitive world markets with recognition and reputation for its quality products. Bangladesh feels proud that its products are entering many countries of the world. But do we know the secret behind this success? The secret is the garments industry has a lot of female workers who are efficient in needle work, sincere, and do not know how to form a trade union.

Since the beginning, these good workers have been exploited by the garment industry. They are seriously underpaid compare to their labour and contribution. In order to lift themselves out of poverty, these workers have come from the rural areas with a hope of a bit better life. Most of them are under the age of 20, unmarried, and have little formal education. A fresh female worker starts her job with a monthly salary of Tk 300 to 700 and has no housing or transport facilities. Everyday they have to trek a long distance to work. If you are an early riser you must have seen the march of these garments workers on the road. Same way, they return home late at night on foot. Alas, they cannot afford even the cheapest public transport.

These garments workers often become the target of criminals, face sexual harassment, and sometimes have to pay a big price. Garments workers pass their days in severe social insecurity. Besides, no employer ensures them the security of their job. The incident of termination from the job is quite frequent. The worst thing is that they are not allowed to express these injustices openly. We often hear the news of harassment of the garments workers when they raise their voices. The garments owners do not ensure the minimum standard of safe working environment for them. Each year many garments workers meet tragic death due to accidental fire in the garment factories.

Each and every day our central bank checks how far the barometer of our foreign currency reserve has risen, our finance ministers calculates how big the export earning figure is going to be in the next fiscal year, and our garments owners think how the business will be extended further with the profit margin, but they do not think how the garments worker will be able to live an additional day with minimum level of decency.


However, the miserable conditions of the garments workers were always a concern for the countries that import garments from Bangladesh. But most of the time, we have seen it as a conspiracy of other countries that want to drive out Bangladesh from the competitive world market. The problems of the garments workers have never been focused on sincerely. I still can remember the debate over the Harkin Bill that expressed concern over child labour and some other related issues of the garments industries during the early 1990s. Finally, under pressure from the importing countries, a MOU was signed among BGMEA, ILO, UNICEF, and the US in Dhaka in 1994 to eliminate child labour, abide by the laws that regulate minimum wage, ensure friendly environment for working, etc. A decade has passed since the MOU was signed, and little appears to have improved, if we are to believe the recent report in The Daily Star on the plight of garments workers in Konabari in Gazipur.

I fear that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps many more incidents of tragic suicide, sexual harassment, and job losses of the garments workers are happening in other places of the country. The fortunate garments industrialists, would you please look further at these wretched workers who have made their lives yarn to weave your fortune. I am using the word "further" because, according to the report of The Daily Star, more than 50 garments workers have committed suicide in Konabari in the last five months, but the president of BGMEA is not aware of it.


After the year 2004, according to the negations of the Uruguay Round of GATT (now WTO), Bangladesh will lose all the special preferences/quotas given by US and EU, and the garments sector will have to face a big challenge to survive in the world market. It is being assumed that many of the garments industries will have to be closed, and that the first victims will be the thousands of vulnerable garments workers. The garments industrialists, government, and NGOs should be prepared in advance to save them. Otherwise, a humanitarian crisis will have to be faced.

Author: Md Firoj Alam
Published: The Daily Star, July 15, 2004

Water security for all

Md. Firoj Alam

Deprivation is not a consequence of shortage of safe water, rather a consequence of inequitable distribution. While the affluent people, both in rural and urban areas, get water first, it is the poor and the marginalised sections of society who are invariably left out. The urban poor seem destined to fetch spilled-over water from the water reservoir of the rich. Similarly, the rural poor queue up at the deep tubewell of the rich. The pattern of water begging is identical in urban and rural areas.


Worse, source of safe water is on the wane, courtesy of indiscriminate dumping of industrial, human and other wastes into natural water bodies. What's more, injudicious extraction has resulted in arsenic contamination of groundwater in India and Bangladesh. While the rich have triggered the contamination, the poor have suffered the consequences. In Bangladesh, some 55 million people risk exposure to arsenic contamination. Needless to say, most of them are poor.


However, the water security has spelled boon for many. National and multinational companies have made a windfall from sale of drinking water. Global water industry is worth $7 trillion and has assured itself of profit at least for the next 25 years (Dr Sudhirendar Sharma, The Daily Star, April 19, 2002). The third world markets are now flooded with different types of water purification filters, testing kits and accessories. While the water traders are trying to boost their sales with the arsenic-free labels on their bottled water, they are not contributing a penny from their profits to efforts towards sustainable solution to arsenic crisis. On top of this, the World Bank is pursuing governments to privatise the water supply system for cost recovery from supplied water. If it succeeds, water insecurity will only deepen with millions more rendered vulnerable.


The primary objective of any developing country should be to ensure every citizen access to safe drinking water with special attention given to the poor and the disadvantaged. Water rate should within reach of the people in the lower rung of society. For sustainable management of water resources, the government should involve community participation.

Author: Md Firoj Alam, Published in the Daily Star, January 17, 2003
View at source: http://www.thedailystar.net/dailystarnews/200301/17/n3011709.htm#BODY6

CHT先住民族、最悪の水危機に直面

訳:ジュマ協力基金)

チッタゴン丘陵地帯3県にはチョラ(Chhara)、チョリ(Chhari)、ロン(Long)、キャン(khyang)などの接尾語が付く地名が多数ある(例えばサッチョラ、ベッチョラ、バガイチョリ、ビライチョリ、シュバロン、カスロン、リグリキャンなど)。 それらの接尾語は先住民族の言葉で泉や小川を意味する。そのためバンダルボン、ランガマティ、カグラチョリの各地の地名が数百年にわたってCHTで暮らしてきた先住民族12集団の暮らしにとって重要な役割を担ってきた泉や小川に因ん名付けられたことは容易に理解出来る。

先住民族は、平野部の人々が使ってきたような近代的な利水技術を取り入れてこなかったためその技術に不案内である。 従って、先住民族は自然の水源、特に泉の水を灌漑、農耕はもとより、飲み水、料理、洗濯、水浴び用として頼ってきた。 すべての村は、それ故に泉の近くに建設された。棄てられた古い村も、近くにあった泉が涸れたことが原因で人々が去ったと考えられる。

CHTのすべての川と支流は、そのエリアの数百に及ぶ泉が自然に合流したものである。カルナフリ川がチッタゴン港の機能を保つ上でいかに重要であるか誰でも知っているが、その水もそうした泉からのものなのだ。同じく、サング川、ナフ川、マツムフリ川他の河川も泉を源流としている。

CHTの先住民族にとって悪いニュースだが、この地域の泉は涸れ始めている。CHTには100年前、推計20万ヵ所の泉があった。 この地域に現在、泉がいくつあるのか統計はない。しかし、CHTの殆どの地域で年々多くの泉が涸れてしまっていることを、地元の人々はみんな知っている。

チッタゴンとランガマティの途中のガグラに大変重要な泉があるが、7,8年前までは一年中満々と水を湛える力強い泉であったが今は僅かにその面影を残すのみである。

ランガマティとマハルチョリの間には良質な泉が数多くあったが、近年それらも殆ど涸れてしまった。ランガマティ県のライカリ・ユニオンにある有名なNyoungmrongの泉は数百軒の先住民族家庭に灌漑用水と家事のための水を年中供給していたが、今は涸れてしまった。 Nyoungmrongの泉が涸れてしまった後で、たった一つの水源となったBrimongの泉も水勢がかなり衰えている。村人は現在、この泉の土手に100年以上続いてきた歴史ある村を棄てるかどうか悩んでいる。

Mura Chhari UnionのGhumni Ghat 泉, Satari 泉, Pengjamrong 泉、Kolabong 泉、 そしてMiasachari UnionのKaria Frya泉, Manchhari 泉も同様の運命を辿っており、それらの泉の周囲に長年にわたって暮らしてきた先住民族は深刻な水危機に直面している。

CHTの泉は、世界中の至る所で見られるような溶けた氷や氷河から流れ出た水が噴き出しているのではない。 チッタゴン丘陵地帯の泉は樹木の根を伝って山々の裂け目に流れ落ちた水が源となっている。それ故、山霧と降雨はそのプロセスを早める。もちろん、そのように泉が創成される素晴らしいプロセスは原生林に厚く覆われた山々だけに起こりうる。しかし、CHTの原生林は過度の人口増大と政府や開発機関による無分別な開発イニシアティブによって急激に減少してる。

ここで過度の人口増加と政府の開発政策について大まかに検討してみたい。 CHTの1901年の総人口は124,762人であったが、2000年には1,325,041になっている。1997年までの10年ごとの人口増加は国全体で約18%であったのに対して、CHTでは47%だった。この人口増加は異常であるが、もとよりそれは1979年から1997年にかけて平野部のベンガル人がCHTへ移住するのを政府が後押ししたためである。他地域からの人々の流入がCHTの異常な人口増加の原因である。 80年代と90年代の各10年間の人口増加率はそれぞれ48%と67%にも上った。

CHTにおける急激な人口増加は全体の人口構成と民族の均衡に衝撃を与えた。先住民族とベンガル人の人口比率は1947年に97.5対2.5であったのが、現在では52対48である。

1962年にパキスタン政府は水力発電のためにカルナフリ川を堰き止めてダムを造り、人口の貯水池として現在有名なカプタイ湖が出来た。 この湖は先住民族の耕作地の4割にあたる5万4千エーカーを推定に沈めた。耕作地の減少と人口の増大は森林に対して深刻な圧力を生み出した。

伝統的に先住民族は(ジュムとして知られる)「刈り入れと山焼き」システムを営んできた。 焼畑を永続的に行うためには、丘陵地帯では植物を燃やして耕作した森が回復するために15年から20年の休耕期間を設けることが必要だと考えられている。 過去、土地と人間の割合は焼畑サイクルに理想的かつ必要な休耕期間が保てるよう釣り合っていた。しかし現在は人口過剰のために休耕期間は2,3年まで縮まってしまったが、それでは植物が生長し森が復活するには短すぎる。このジュム耕作の悪循環は、泉が生まれる前提条件である原生林が消失してしまう主要な原因の一つである。

チョンドラゴーナのカルナフリ製紙工場とその他の国中のパルプと製紙工場は、CHTから運び込まれる樹木と植物数百万トンの原料供給で成り立っており、この地域の森林破壊に重大な責任がある。カルナフリ製紙工場はCHTの先住民族にとって極めて重要な植物である竹を毎年数百万トン消費している。

政府といくつかの開発機関は商業林を作り、ティーク、アカシア、ユーカリなどの外来種を植林した。これらの外来種は、自然に森が再生しようとするのを阻害し、地下水面を低下させるなど環境危機を招いた。 さらに悪いことに、自然林の消失は気温上昇を引き起こし、そして降水量を減少させた。このようにして環境全体の変化が、結果としてCHTに水危機を生み出したのだった。

バングラデシュでは全人口の97%が安全な水を得ることが出来きる、と言われていた。しかし、ヒ素汚染(0.5 mg/L以上)の調査後、安全な水を得られる人口は70%まで落ち込んだ。 この安全な水が得られる地域の落ち込みは政府、援助機関、そしてNGOの頭痛の種となり、すべての関係機関はヒ素の恐怖から人々を救うために一致協力して活動している。

過去3年間にDANIDA(デンマーク開発協力庁)は単独で沿岸地帯8県の161,755本の手押ポンプ式井戸のヒ素検査を実施し、20,100本のポンプ式井戸、32の小水道システム、210箇所の池砂フィルタ、そして雨水を飲料用に蓄えるシステムを導入してヒ素に汚染された水を人々が飲まずに済むようにした。

バングラデシュの他地域ではこのように大きな機関が活動している。片やバングラデシュ政府はランガマティ、バンダルボン、カグラチョリの三県はヒ素に汚染されていないと公表した。

水がなくなったのに、いったいヒ素はどこから来るというのだろうか？　もしかすると現実に関する認識が欠如しているのかもしれない。政府はCHTでいったいどれだけの人々が安全な水を入手出来ないか知らないし、ここでどれだけ広範に深刻な水危機が起きているのかも知らない。

「カウンティング・ザ・ヒル」のサンプル調査によれば、2.9%のムル民族、14,3%のトリプラ民族、32%のマルマ民族、26%のチャクマ民族が安全で信頼できる水源と考えられるポンプ式井戸を利用している。 残りの人々は、泉や川など安全性が確保できない水源から水を汲み、そして、その水が飲用として安全かどうかも分からないのだ。

毎年、辺鄙な村では水が原因の病気で多くの人々が命を落としている。さらに、ここでは水の消費は極めて低い。 水浴び、調理、飲み水、そして洗濯などで一人が一日に必要な水は最低でも50リットルだとされているのに対して、先住民族は5リットルで過ごしていたという観察記録もある。 水汲み場が遠いことが水の消費が少ない主な理由であり、そのことは確実に丘陵地帯の人々の健康にさまざまな悪影響を及ぼす。

政府と援助機関は、この水危機の重大性をはっきりと認識していない。マスメディアもCHTに対する知識不足や、山や森に近づきにくいことなどが原因で、この問題を取り上げてこなかった。その結果、厳しい水危機の下で暮らしている丘陵民の苦境について全く知られていない。

Author:
Md. Firoj Alam and Nyhola Mong
Published:http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/06/18/d406181801103.htm

Translation:Third Culture [http://thirdculture.com/jpa/jcc/index.html], Japan

Ethics and trade

Md. Firoj Alam:
THOUSANDS of babies in China are fighting against death. They have virtually been poisoned by toxic elements in milk -- the main baby food. We get news about adulterated food almost every day in the print and electronic media. I feel that this world is unsafe for human beings. Even innocent babies are being poisoned to death! We need to contemplate on why this is happening. What is wrong with human conscience? In this article, I will discuss the basis of ethics. The laws have proved a failure. Despite having so many laws and law enforcing agencies, courts and judicial systems every day why so many crimes are taking place? This is why nowadays the word "ethics" has come forward. People are so cunning that they can easily escape from the laws and law enforcing agencies and commit crimes. So ethics is the last straw holding what the humanity wants to survive from sinking in the deep sea of inhumanity in this present world.Ethics is self responsibility -- sprit of not doing harm for others. My intention here is to discuss a little about why we have become so unethical in this stage.The physical body of a human being is nothing but a vehicle of which the mind or emotion is the driver. The body just follows that comes to the mind. The body is even unable to differentiate between false and true, reality and imagination. A baby comes into the world in body-mind state. It remains connected to the universe -- the total existence. The baby comes into the world as a pure being. As the days pass by, the baby's mind gets separated from the body. The modern psychologist now says that human being has two parts: body and mind. In this article, I am using emotion as a synonym of mind from now. Emotion has its two aspects: fair emotion and unfair emotion. Fair emotion is just love and compassion. Primarily it is love and ultimately it reaches to the height of compassion. A true human being is just compassion. The well known compassionate figures in the world are Hazrat Mohammed (sm), Jesus, Mohavir, Nanak, Buddha, Socrates, etc. The list can be made longer but I think it is enough to understand the compassionate personalities. On the other hand, the unfair parts of the emotion basically consist of three things: anger, greed, and fear. All negative feelings like jealousy, hatred, and anxiety basically are the branches and leaves of these three. In the world we come with fair emotion and gradually we import and accumulate the unfair emotion. The unfair part becomes bigger and bigger and the fair parts get smaller and smaller, and gradually the fair emotions are knocked out by the unfair part of the emotion. Now, let us see how do we take decisions in our daily life? All the decisions we take are based on either, anger or greed or fear. We cannot take a decision based on love. How can we do that? We have eliminated that part from our heart with the socialisation process. On the other hand, the society has given a lot of nourishment for anger, greed and fear. Interesting thing is the fair and unfair emotion cannot stay together. It is like dark and light that cannot exist together.The basis of the present world economy is greed. Greed is the main capital. The trade, economy and other essential things for survival has gone to the wrong hand. For this reason we find the world is at the verge of destruction. In this stage I am quoting few verses from Kahlil Gibran that may show us how far we have gone from the ethics of trade:To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands.It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied.Yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice, it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger.When in the market place you toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards meet the weavers and the potters and the gatherers of spices,Invoke then the master spirit of the earth, to come into your midst and sanctify the scales and the reckoning that weighs value against value.And suffer not the barren-handed to take part in your transactions, who would sell their words for your labour.To such men you should say,"Come with us to the field, or go with our brothers to the sea and cast your net;For the land and the sea shall be bountiful to you even as to us.And if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players, buy of their gifts also.For they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense, and that which they bring, though fashioned of dreams, is raiment and food for your soul.And before you leave the market place, see that no one has gone his way with empty hands.For the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied.[On Buying and Selling, The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran,]. Ethic will not come into being automatically. We had it at the time of our childhood. We lost it though the process of socialisation. We shall have to reclaim it. In fact it is already with us. It is existing deep within our being. We shall have to bring it out. Otherwise, we will be doing harm of other as well as of our own soul
Md. Firoj Alam is working as a Project Officer with Unicef
Published in the Daily Star On: 2008-10-12

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=58265

Secondary contamination worsening water crisis

Secondary contamination worsening water crisis
MD FIROJ ALAM

After detection of arsenic in the ground water in Bangladesh the coverage for safe water has dropped to 74 per cent from its previous coverage of 97 per cent. We do not know for sure how safe is this 74 per cent too! Finding the decreased mortality rate from water borne diseases we jump to a conclusion that water and sanitation situation of this country must have improved. We also prove it statistically by showing the data of increased numbers of physical installation of the water points and sanitary latrines. However, we do not have any authentic data on how many people actually suffer from water borne disease. The cause of less death is possibly because of improvement in the efficiency of management, not necessarily because of increased physical facilities. Increasing the coverage by constructing new water sources is never meaningful unless the quality of water is also ensured. To calculate the safe water coverage, we just show the ratio of the users and water points. We simply divide the population by the water points and report the coverage rate. According to the National Policy for Safe Water Supply and Sanitation 1998, 50 persons or 10 households is a standard coverage for a tube well. It means every water source we consider as safe. In reality is it true?In Bangladesh there are seven main types of improved sources for water: tube-well, ring-well, rain water harvesting system, gravity flow system [in Chittagong Hill Tracts], pond-sand filter, infiltration gallery and piped water supply systems for the urban areas. Water that comes from these sources, the general people considers it as safe. And, our estimation to show the coverage rate is also based on that assumption. A big flaw in it is; water of each and every water point has the risk of getting contaminated either at its very source or outside of the source in the process of collection, transport, storage and consumption. Even if the source is safe originally, there are possibilities of getting contaminated at any time if the principle of water safety plan is ignored. Contamination once the water has left the source is termed here secondary contamination. Secondary contamination occurs in three forms: chemical, physical and microbial. All these three are hazardous for health, but the third one is the riskiest because of its endemic trend and quick effects on human health. There is a permissible limit up to which the chemical and physical contamination is considered as safe for human health. For example as per the WHO guideline the safe limit for arsenic, fluoride and iron is 0.01, 1.5 and 0.3 respectively. But, for microbial contamination it is zero, means even the presence of a single pathogen in 100ml sample water is risky for human consumption! We are getting report of diarrhoea disease outbreak everyday from every corner of the country — village, towns and cities. Why? Despite having water from tube-well/ ring-well/rain water harvesting system/ gravity flow system/pond-sand filter, infiltration gallery/ piped water supply systems people are getting sick everyday because of this secondary contamination. Pathogens come in our safe water sources from human and animal faecal matters. In tube-wells it leeches down to the water layer mainly through latrines pits when the rules for safe distance between latrine and water points is not maintained. Tube-wells having no sanitary seal at the base of the pumps are also having the high risk of getting contaminated by pathogens. Same is the reason for ring well. Rain – water harvesting systems become risky due to lack of proper maintenance of the catchment roof, pond sand filter fails to produce pathogen free water if the pond and filter-bed are not properly maintained. Unhygienic situation in the spring catchments areas is the main reason for presence of pathogens in the water of the Gravity Flow Systems, and the pipe water get easily contaminated because of the leakages in the supply pipe networks. In addition, the unhygienic process of collection, storage, transport and use are the common cause of making safe water unsafe and applicable for all the sources mentioned.Safe water is a must for each and every human being. But, for a poor country like Bangladesh it is almost impossible to carryout regular water testing and treating the water at sources and ensures safe water for its population.There are 11 water quality testing laboratories in Bangladesh, both government and private owned. However, if we consider that, there are over ten million tube-wells alone located throughout the country, and then it is evident that testing all water facilities is unfeasible. It is simply impossible, in terms of time and resources to keep these water points under surveillance by government or any agencies to monitor water quality. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Bangladesh to date still has not taken any initiative to establish any water quality surveillance system. We cannot ignore our responsibility to ensure that people have safe water and therefore need to develop a system, which does not require physical water quality testing. But, how? My suggestion is to impart knowledge to the people on how to keep “safe water” safe. By reducing secondary contamination routes and ensuring regular maintenance, water remains safe, free of pathogens and other contaminants, at the source and throughout the collection, transportation and use stages. This approach of keeping water safe is popularly known as water safety plan. Agencies that are working to provide safe water in Bangladesh can be benefited by adopting water safety plan in their implementation strategy. Route for Secondary contamination: The following scenes are very common in Bangladesh. Users believe that they are getting safe water, but in fact they are not. These kinds of practices place high risk on water supplies, Water has the potential of becoming contaminated with pathogens like bacteria, viruses and protozoa leading to water borne diseases.
[The writer is a Project Officer working for Water and Environmental Sanitation with UNICEF )]

View at source: http://www.theindependent-bd.com/details.php?nid=130459

Conflict over eco-park Outcome of non-participatory project planning

These Garos in this area are mostly dependent on this forest for their livelihood. Therefore, the Garos have rightly understood that the creation of the Eco Park will limit their access to the forest and consequently it will appear as a threat to their lifestyle, livelihood and existence in turn. For this reason the Garos living in and around the Modhupur forest have united themselves to resist the construction of the Eco Park. As the Garos are one of the most backward ethnic communities in Bangladesh in terms of education, organisation and economy, they could not draw the attention of the civil society, press and other political parties at the initial stage when the government approved the project in 2000. Rather, this aboriginal community has roused against the mighty government with their blunt traditional weapons on January 3, 2004 after three years of the project initiation. In response to that weak resistance the police and forest rangers have answered with the fire arms. Consequently two Garo youths namely Utpal and Piren died on the spot and 25 others including women and children, were wounded. It has been assumed that the Eco Park is a threat for the existence of 2000 people in this area. Now the question is: who will be benefited from this project? Of course the beneficiaries are not the Garos whose umbilical cords are buried in the forest. The project will serve the interest of a section that has no fair relation with this forest.There are thousands of examples in the history of development which show that the planners do not take the problems of ethnic groups into account when they undertake any development project. One of the recent evidences of such indifferences of development planners to ethnic groups is our Kaptai Hydro Electric Project. The Kaptai Hydro Electric Project was planned to implement without considering the effect on the tribal communities living in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) area. The concerned tribal mass was not discussed with before taking up the project. As a component of project the Kaptai dam was built on the Karnaphuli Rive in 1962 to create an artificial water reservoir that submerged 54,000 acres i.e a total of 40 per cent cultivable land belonging to the tribal people in this area. The Kaptai Lake is now an attractive tourist spot abounded with fish and produces 120 mega watts of electricity from which mostly the non-tribal people are being benefited. On the other hand, the inundation caused by the artificial lake pushed thousands of the tribal people deep into the dark forest and neighboring India. It is one of the major causes of the conflict between the government and indigenous people of CHT that caused instability and mounting tension in CHT area since then. If the project could have been planned through participatory approach the dissatisfaction of the hilly people could be lessened.The Modhupur Eco Park is going to be another example of non-participatory planning in the record of development initiatives. Government has followed the top down approach of planning. No discussion was held with the stakeholders particularly with the Garos about the project. So the Garos have perceived the project from the different angles that do not converge with the purpose of government. Government is defining the project as a "development" while Garos are taking it as counter development. So the conflict is imminent. Meanwhile Garos have vowed to continue their agitation until government abandoned this project. Other ethnic groups including the "Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity" have expressed their solidarity with the Garos. A tension is still prevailing in Modhupur forest. But this unpleasant situation could be avoided if the project could be planned following participatory approach considering the interest of the Garo community in and around the Modhupur Forest (Md. Firoj Alam, Daily Star, January 16, 2004).

Jaundice outbreak at Dhaka University

There is a myth in our country that only the uneducated and poor people in our country lack simple hygiene knowledge which is the cause of 80 per cent of their total disease incidence -- with diarrhea, cholera, jaundice, dysentery, and typhoid being the five most common water borne diseases. But the recent outbreak of jaundice among the students living at Dhaka University indicates that our educated people are not immune to the problem either. It is unclear whether the recent outbreak of jaundice can be ascribed to the lack of hygiene knowledge among the students or the DU canteen staff, but there is a high probability that lack of hygiene knowledge is why jaundice has taken the endemic shape in DU halls to claim the life of one student and strike another 400.

Let me make it clear why I am saying this. As per the reports of the newspapers, the students of DU have been struck by the Hepatitis A Virus (HAV). There are also some other hepatitis viruses like B, C, D, E, and G. These are called non-A. The non-A spreads through needle-sharing, blood, and sex. There are no positive reports of the non-A hepatitis in the dorms.
But the HAV gets into the host through the fecal-oral route with water and food when the hosts lack the knowledge of whether their food and water have come into contact with fecal matter. Although there are two other routes like parenteral route (transmitting by blood and blood products or by skin penetration) and homosexuality among men that creates oral-anal contact and gets the HAV into the host -- this is quite rare and unusual in our country and highly unlikely to be the cause of the DU outbreak.

The possibility of spreading this disease through water is very low because the DU halls are not supplied with the DWASA water that has the serious risk of being contaminated with HAV as the water pipelines of the DWASA often come into contact with the sewerage lines through leakage. The DU students are supplied with ground water considered as the best quality water in our country. Besides, the DU halls have a sufficient supply of water round the clock. Therefore, I think the other factors of fecal-oral contamination like food, hand washing, the hygiene practices are causing the endemic situation of jaundice in DU halls, not the water.
Living almost seven years in a DU hall I have understood that there is the high possibility of transmitting the HAV through the food. The resident students of DU halls eat in the hall canteens and some other shops located inside the campus. The staff that operates the canteen has a serious lack of knowledge of hygienic practices. As the students have the same level of ignorance, they cannot create pressure on the canteen staff and are unable to advise the shopkeepers and canteen staffs for the maintenance of food hygiene.
I have observed that the students lack the knowledge of the importance of hand washing with soap during the critical times like after defecation, before having meal, and at the time of preparing or handling the food.

The students wash their hands normally only with water before having meal, but use soap for washing the hands after.

The staffs of the canteens have not any practices of washing hand with soap at any of those critical times. So the risk of bringing the HAV remains high while they serve and prepare food and touch utensils. The students are habituated to touch and eat the dry food without washing the hands at all or taking any precaution for safety.
The food that is served in the DU canteens is simply substandard. The students are often supplied with rotten and substandard vegetables purchased as remnants from the kitchen markets. The fish supplied in the canteen also has the possibility of bearing HAV as the canteen owners always bought the carps cultivated in sewerage polluted water around the city. The canteen operators prefer those fish to feed the students because the price is lower than the other fish in the market.

All of the latrines and urinals in the DU campus are also the potential sources of water and excreta borne disease because these latrines often remain filthy with excreta and urine that spreads bad odour and attracts other carriers like cockroach, flies, etc.

Perhaps it is the common scenario for the student dormitories belonging to other college and universities of this country. And consequently, we often get the news of outbreak of food poisoning, diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, and typhoid among the students.

In conclusion, I must say that jaundice and other water borne disease is a big problem for our country. Every year these diseases cause the loss of Tk 500 crore and inflict other social and economic harm on our population like labour loss, disruption of mental peace, etc. These are the diseases for all of the people who do not maintain the sanitation rules and hygiene practices. And almost all of the people of this country fall under this criteria. The incidents of DU are enough to understand this reality.

However, the point for hope is the transmission routes of these diseases are identical and identified all over the country. An effective sanitation barrier can dismantle these transmission routes and save thousands of lives from these diseases. But generation of the critical awareness on the hygiene practices among the people is the primary and crucial task for the concerned stakeholders.

Author: Md. Firoj alam, Published in The Daily Star, November 27, 2004.
Link:http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/11/27/d41127150198.htm

Any alternatives to Jhum cultivation in CHT?

Banderban, Rangamati and Khagracchari are the three hill districts that cover one –tenth [5089 squire miles] of our total land volume. It is officially and widely known as Chittagong Hill Tracts [CHT] is totally different from any other parts of this country for its special topography and different lifestyle of the people living in this area. The CHT is covered with wide ranges of hills, clefts and forests and inhabited originally by 11 ethnic communities-- Chankma, Marma, Mro, Tripura, Tonchainga, Bawm, Lusai, Khumi, Khyang Kuki, Sak and Pankhua. Besides, a huge numbers of “Bangali” settlers, making 48% of its total population are also living there presently. Almost all of the indigenous people of CHT are directly and indirectly dependent on Jhum.
The land features of CHT have compelled the indigenous people to practice Jhum to produce necessary crops for their living. As per the reputed Forestal Report 1966, only 3% [76466 acres] land of CHT is cultivable for all purpose of agriculture. The hill people suspect that this amount of land is not available now because by this time thousands of Banglis have got settlement on the plain land. Besides, the rise of water level in Kaptai Lake has inundated a huge portion of flat land. This harsh reality is forcing the indigenous people to climb up to the rocky hill tops to practice Jhum for their livelihood.
Now a days the argument of the environmentalists, government and non- government development agencies against jhum is stronger than it was anytime in the past. These groups are blaming that the Jhum practice is causing a serious environmental degradation in CHT by creating deforestation and enhancing soil erosion. And all are suggesting to finding out some alternative option of Jhum cultivation.
Visiting frequently for last two years many remotely villages of the CHT I have seen some of the initiatives which are being tried to establish as alternatives to the “harmful” Jhum cultivation. These alternative options are the pineapple gardening, planting teak, and some other fast growing verities of trees like eucalyptus, and acacia. There are some tea estates, and policy makers presently are discussing about wider scale tea production in CHT. Government is trying also to promote large scale rubber gardening project here. Besides numbers of cigarette companies are trying desperately to motivate the innocent indigenous people in tobacco production. A remarkable part of the land which in past was used to produce vegetables and food grain has now gone under tobacco cultivation.
These alternative options are not sustainable at all. It is creating different adverse affects on the ecology of the CHT. Many indigenous people along with the government and NGOs are now planting the exotic verities of trees like teak, acacia and eucalyptus cleaning the indigenous forests without thinking its long term implications on the environment. These exotic verities [including pineapple] do not allow any kind of vegetation under its shed and consequently it causes severe soil erosion. Visiting many teak forests I have seen that the roots of the teak trees have become exposed due to the erosion. The most dangerous thing is; this exotic verity depletes water tables. Hundreds of the springs and streams have dried out meanwhile due to the water table depletion. This time I do not want go deep into this issue because last year I have made it detail in my article published in the Daily Star [18.06.04] and Bangladesh Observer
[14.05.04]. But once again I want to flag it up that if the present trend of death of the spring and streams continue few more years the CHT will face a severe water crisis.
The suggestions of the development agencies and the policy makers are contradicting with long practiced living style of the indigenous people. For example the main crop of the Jhum is rice which has the uniqueness in terms of taste and smell. The indigenous people can not think of having any other types of rice giving it up. The teak and other trees may give them money, but that money will not be able to satisfy them said the villagers of the Kodompru para under Roangchhari upazilla in Banderban. CHT at present has the deficiency in food grain. This deficiency will be accelerating in future if Jhum cultivation comes under restriction
Captain Lewin in his famous book has written that the Jhum has an implication on the health of the Jhum cultivators. He mentioned that the people who leave the village during the Jhum cultivation remain healthier than the people who remain static in the village round the year.
The indigenous people disagree that that Jhum practice is causing any soil erosion. They argue that as they never displace any roots of the plants, and do not plough the slops, the soil texture remains unbroken. The first splash of the rain just washes away some ashes which were produced by burning the bushes for cleaning the hill slopes. These ashes however increase the fertility of the soil. Immediately after the first shower of rain the seeds are sown just poking the hill with a sharp piece of bamboo or the dao [a piece big sharp of blood fixed with the wooden handle]. The weeds and crops covers the hill slops very fast and it checks the soil erosion. By the September the Jhum field recovers its previous greenery with grass and foliage
However, there is no scope to deny completely that soil is not eroding at all due to the Jhum, as the Jhumias are claiming. There definitely will have a natural rate of soil erosion. It is happening even in the plain land. The erosion of the plain land however has a chance to be recovered through the flood, which is lacking the hill slops. But it is true at the same time that the Jhum was sustainable form of agriculture in past when the interval between two Jhums was at least 15 years. Presently, the population pressure and shrunk of the cultivable land have minimized the interval to 3 years only. Therefore, it is not the Jhum, but excessive pressures on the land are the main reason that upsetting the total ecological equilibrium of the CHT.
Taking different initiatives government wants to prove that the Jhumias are the enemy of the environment but government is trying to protect it sincerely. But, if the activities of the government are analyzed critically it can be understood easily that it is the government’s policies in different eras, not the Jhumias have done all the harms of the CHT ecology and its people consequently. Some instances I want to produce here
The British government had taken the initiative to stop Jhum cultivation at first. The welfare of the hill people was not the concern of the initiatives. British government wanted to make the moving indigenous people settled in a fixed village so that they can easily and regularly collect the tax.
The Pakistan government with the financial aid from USAID has built the Kaptai Hydro Electricity Project that inundated 54000 acres of the best cultivable land and displaced thousands of indigenous people from their settlement. It has created an unusual pressure on land in CHT. The interval in the Jhum cycle has fallen drastically after starting of this project.
An abnormal rate of population growth is evident in CHT. In 1901, the total population of CHT was 124,762 and in 2000, this population size has become 1,325,041. In each decade, the average growth of national population was approximately 18 per cent while in CHT it was 47 per cent till 1997. The population has grown here abnormally because government during the 1979-1997 periods patronized the "Bengalis" living in the plain land to be settled here. During the decades of the 80s and the 90s, the population increased at the rate of 48 per cent and 67 per cent respectively. This abnormal growth of population has upset the total demographical and ecological equilibrium in the CHT. Presently the proportion of indigenous to Bengali population has become 52:48, as opposed to 97.5: 2.5 in 1947 which has created a sever strain on the land and deforestation consequently.
Government has acquired a huge amount of land [24%] and created reserve forest. Access of the hill people is fully restricted here. Besides, government often acquires land for army camp and other administrative purposes. Recently government has planned to make an eco perk in the Chimbuk area. Creation of reserve forest and occupying the land for different purposes is upsetting the land - man ratio in CHT
Different projects like Social Aforestation, rubber tree plantation, and construction of roads and bridges are squeezing the land of the indigenous people. Apparently it seems that the roads, culverts and bridges are inevitable for the development of the indigenous people. In fact these infrastructures are serving the interest of the armies, government officials and a section of urban affluent people in CHT. The innocent indigenous people are scared of the metal roads. Many indigenous people living beside the Bandarban – Thanchi, Bandraban- Ruma, and Ali Kodom road have abandoned their villages during and after construction of these roads. Government, in the name of such development initiatives has grabbed land of the indigenous people. It is also creating pressure on land and causing deforestation in turn.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the indigenous people by nature are afraid of any dramatic changes. They can not easily match with the new interventions. They have kept themselves aloof from the market economy and still they are attached with hunting – gathering system of economy. This pulse of this society needs to understand very carefully and sincerely before initiating any new interventions. The indigenous people believe that they can live a better life if they are just kept undisturbed.
Impose of restriction on Jhum is not a solution at all. Rather, the policy makers should find out disusing with the indigenous people how Jhum can be brought back to its past sustainable position. Of course, prior to all, land acquisition by the government purchasing excessive land by the affluent sections of the indigenous people will have to be stopped. Solution should come from within the indigenous people. The imposed suggestion will make the situation only complex.

Author: Md. Firoj Alam. Published: Bangladesh Observer, July 1, 2005

Flood -- a natural phenomenon

Flood is not a new phenomenon for Bangladesh. During the monsoon a big part of this country each year goes under water, and very often it takes the shape of flood. Different documents say that over the last 50 years [1954-2004], this part of the world has experienced at least 41 floods of different magnitude due to the monsoon rain, sea upsurge and flushing of the hills. Some of the floods have occupied the history of the natural disaster permanently for the massive damage of lives and property they wrought.

Currently this country is passing through another nightmare of a devastating flood that has engulfed major part of this country and meanwhile caused tremendous suffering for at least 4 million people. The death toll has risen to 500 and several thousands more have been struck by different diseases. It has been assumed that the economic losses due to this flood will be as much as taka 300 billion. Therefore, people of this country will have to bear the brunt of this flood for few more years. May be another one will hit this country before it has recovered completely. Yes, history is telling so. If we go back a few years, we will find that in the year of 2000 the entire southwestern part of the country was ravaged by a devastating flood; the flood of 1998 is still exiting in our mind as yesterday's memory, in 1993 and 1989 the country faced two medium ranged floods, the flood of 1988 is still a record and the flood of 1987 is unforgettable too as it swamped 40 per cent of this country. I do not want to go back further. I think this chronology is enough to prove that flood is a curse for us and it is coming again and again to increase our poverty, hunger, sufferings, death and drudgery. But can't we get rid of it? Or, have we accepted it as the infallible writings of providence? If not, why do we not take the learning from these floods and try to mitigate it or cope with it? Why do we try to be active only during the flood and forget everything just after recession of the water?
It is quite known to the policymakers that along with the natural causes, many man made interventions such as construction of road, culvert, bridge, embankment, dam, sluice gate, encroachment or filling up of canal, river bed and other water bodies create flood. But have these been stopped? No. Rather, these activities are increasing at progressive rate. Over the last two decades, scores of big bridges have been constructed over the important rivers including Padma, Meghna, Jamuna, Buriginaga, Gomoti, Rupsaha, Tista, Dhorla etc. These bridges have accelerated our speed, but expedited the process of sedimentation on the river bed. After the flood of 1988, thousands of kilometers of embankment have been constructed. Alone in the coastal belts there are more than three thousand kms of embankment. The constructed culverts and small bridges all over the country are simply innumerable. These infrastructures are preventing the water from receding, rather than protecting flood.
Again, the water bodies are not being taken care of. Due to the lack of proper dredging these have lost their depth on one hand, while on the other, the private companies have targeted these to develop as commercial and residential housing plots. The marshes inside and outside Dhaka city area are now in the hands of land developers.
Out of the 1500 rivers, more than 1250 have lost their existence. The rest 250 rivers are simply struggling for survival. Recently the Ittefaq [July, 3] reported that all 411 haors, 11 baors, and 29 bills located in the north eastern part of this country are at stake. These need dredging. It has been proved that deep water bodies produce fish, control floods and work as the cheap way for transporting passengers and goods. Governments often show the excuse of fund shortage for dredging. But governments have never faced any fund crisis for non productive and political projects.
We the people ourselves even do not take any lesson though we experience the floods frequently. As an NGO worker, I visit almost everywhere of this country. And as we work only on water and sanitation, we critically look into these two issues. We have observed that the people of the flood prone areas are painfully indifferent to the flood survival strategies. In spite of being repeatedly victim of flood people have gained very less skill to cope with these disasters. Rather, the indigenous people of the hill areas have learnt better how to survive with the natural disasters. I have observed that the indigenous people of the CHT build their houses on raised platforms to protect themselves from flash flood, landslide, rain-wash and wild animals. While the people of the plain do not think about flood when they install a hand tube-well or a latrine, construct houses or build embankment surrounding their ponds. Consequently, a normal flood inundates the tube-well, washes away the pond and swamps the dwelling house that maximises their loss and sufferings.
Worst thing is that there are no functional, systematic and constant arrangements of the government to impart this knowledge to the people who are living in the flood prone areas. However, the radio and television repeatedly broadcast these essential messages only when the people are already flood affected. Visiting the flood affected areas, we have seen that the severely affected people do not listen to these messages.
Prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia visited Sunamgonj on 27 July as a part of her relief work. With a melancholy tone the BTV reporter told that she had to take a risk to land her copter as there was no suitable dry land in that area for safe landing. I have both sympathy and pity for her, because she and her party is in power of this country for many years which is located on the danger zone of the disaster map but she have not thought about the necessity of helipad in each district that will remain safe for emergency landing. Reflection of such mismanagement and lack of long term plans are visible everywhere. I have seen flood water on many bridges, let alone roads! Had the flood issue ever come in mind of the planner?
Thousands of people are not getting shelter. The education institutions which generally people use as flood shelters have also gone under water. We have seen that all the schools of the coastal belt are used as cyclone shelters. These have been constructed on the high-raised pillars so that people of the costal area can protect themselves from cyclone and sea upsurge by taking shelter there. Could have not this strategy also been applied in the flood prone areas?
Thanks to Ershad that with lesson from the flood of 1988 he took an initiative to protect Dhaka by building a dam alongside the Buriganga. As a result, considerable part of Dhaka city including the low laying areas of the south, west and northern parts of this city are out of affliction. People of the affected areas are getting support from the safer part of the city. Coordination, fund collection, relief management are being conducted from there. If the entire city would go under water, government and donors would remain busy with this capital city, and the affected people in the remotely villages would remain unattended. The successor governments have not thought of such protection on the eastern part of the city. And, the result we see the boundless suffering of the people living in that part of Dhaka city.
Flood water has started to recede down. A new layer of sediment will be deposited on the river beds. The developers will resume filling water bodies as soon as possible. Another wave of fund will be coming from the donors to implement another inappropriate plan like FAP or some relief and rehabilitation work will be carried out as it happens each year. The flood affected people will go back home and will invest the last drop of their energy to repair the broken house and recover damaged crop land. They will keep the wheel of life running until another disaster comes to stop it. As if it is our destiny that we cannot change. But can we really avoid our responsibility

Published in the Dailt Star: http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/08/03/d408031502117.htm

Author: Md. Firoj Alam

Traditional Rainwater harvesting system in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has the long tradition of collecting rain water. This photo is taken by Md. Firoj Alam, from Chittagong Hill Tructs, Bangladesh

Coping with water scarcity

December to May, five months in a year the dwellers of Shreepure village under Jamalpure district do not get-driven water from their hand tube-wells. As soon as the deep tube-wells start withdrawing the ground water for agriculture, the water table goes down and causes the scarcity for drinking water for them. It happens there every year invariably. Same is the situation in the draught prone Barind-track zone in the northern part of the country. The ground water based agriculture system is causing desertification and scarcity for safe water in the northwest and north central zone of the country.

In the southwest part, Satkhira, Bagerhat and Khulna have the worst water crisis in the country. To fetch a pitcher of safe water the women and adolescent girls have to trek miles after miles. After that even it is not certain the water they have collected is safe. The safe water sources in this area have been depleted because of the saline water intrusion from shrimp cultivation.
The settlements in the Chittagong Hill Tracts [CHT] area are built up on the springs. Springs and streams, the main sources of water in CHT, are now drying up rapidly. Many of the villagers, mostly the innocent tribal people are now bound to abandon their age-old villages because of the water scarcity.

In the major towns and cities in the country large numbers are not getting pipe water because of the production shortage of the authorities. For instance, the Chittagong WASA has the capacity to produce only 30 per cent of the total demand, while Dhaka WASA is barely meeting 75 per cent of demands of the city dwellers. One of the major reasons of the water shortage in the cities and the towns is the unavailability of the ground water, the main source.
Besides, except for three hill districts, the ground water of other 61 districts is arsenic contaminated.

In brief, this is our water scenario, and unfortunately this scenario is getting worse day by day. Why does it happen so? The main cause is the injudicious use of our water resources. In operational term, we can say that it is the sheer lacking of an integrated water resource management.

Day by day we are becoming increasingly dependent on ground water for agriculture and household use. This dependency on the ground water can be easily reduced by creating watershed throughout the country. As Bangladesh is one of the countries in the world having the highest precipitation [206 cm/year], it has opportunity to preserve the rainwater in the artificial and natural reservoirs to use it during the dry season. Visiting the Philippines recently I have found watershed projects almost in each and every village. The Philippines government under "Community Based Integrated Watershed Management" is patronising it.
Our neighboring country India has set perhaps the best example of judicious use of water resources. Thousands of villages across the India are now under "watershed" scheme. The provincial government of Maharastra has made a law to make the citizens obligatory to harvest the rain water to raise the ground water table.

The drudgery of the women and the children in the southwest zone knows no bound due to the scarcity of sweet water. The age-old tradition of farming rice and other food crops are simply on the verge of extinction. The natural vegetation, flora and fauna are at stake as an outcome of absence of any water resource management. Yes, there was a traditional and community initiated water resource management in the southwestern costal area for hundreds of years. The villagers have been checking the saline water by building earthen dam on the rivers and canals.

Presently the situation is just reversed. The greedy rich people going from the towns and cities have inundated the whole area with saline water. Governments along with the big lending agencies like Asian Development Bank, World Bank are encouraging this. Without initiation of an integrated water resource management I see no possibilities of recovering the normal lives and livelihood in this area.

The marginalised section of the population in southwestern zone is simply struggling to live.
While the ground water table is dropping at an alarming rate [3.3 meters/year in Dhaka], the roads and lanes get flooded with the rain water. This rain water can easily be harvested to use at least for toilet flushing, washing and bathing. See the luxury! We are using the water of drinking quality for toilet flushing or car washing. By making law government can make it compulsory for the city people to harvest rain water.

Out of the 1500 rivers, more than 1250 have lost their existence. The rest 250 rivers are simply struggling for survival. The Ittefaq [July 3, 2004] reported that all 411 haors, 11 baors, and 29 bills located in the north-eastern part of the country were at stake. A newly constructed road that has gone cutting through the historic Chalan bill (Pabna-Natore) will cause the death for this natural water body. The Chalan bill works as a heat-buffer zone for the drought prone adjacent districts.

The one sided and isolated policies in the name of development are responsible for this.
Over the last two decades, scores of big bridges have been constructed over the important rivers including Padma, Meghna, Jamuna, Buriganga, Gomoti, Rupsha, Tista, Dhorla etc. These bridges have accelerated our speed, but expedited the process of sedimentation on the river bed. I feel shaky each time when I cross the Jamuna Bridge. Desert like shoal has appeared on both sides in the river as an effect of this bridge. Two big bridges - - the Lalan Shah and the Jamuna bridge -- are already a big threat for this river. The proposed Mawa Bridge over the same river will do the worst for this river.

As a part of implementing the so called Green Revolution agendum in 1960s' and under flood protection scheme after 1988, thousands of kilometers of embankment and dam have been constructed. These embankments and dams are hindering the natural flow of water and causing flood and many other ecological hazards. The constructed culverts and small bridges all over the country are simply innumerable and are causing death for the many rivers and canals as the water issues are absent in the mind of the designers, constructors and the policy makers.
Lives, economy and culture of the people of this country are deeply attached to the water resources. But we have been misusing it everyday in various ways. To save the water sources integrated water resource management is just a need of the hour. But, unfortunately it is missing in the water sector development. Though there are some policies already in the sector; we do not find their refection in the implementation.

Author Md. Firoj Alam
Published in the Daily Satar, Firday, March- 9, 2009
http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/03/09/d703091802120.htm

Addressing the Market Place to Ensure Sanitation for All

Development in Bangladesh is usually segregated into two broad contextsurban and rural. However, between these two defined areas lie many market places and growth centres which do not fall within either category and are therefore escaping the eyes of the development planners.

In Bangladesh, the exact number of hats or bazaars is not known to me at this moment but it is clear to us that there is at least one hat or bazaar within walking distance of everyone in Bangladesh. What happens there? A group of peopleshopkeepers and other tradersare living almost permanently in the market place while other groups come daily or weekly to buy and sell products and commodities. In fact the market place and growth centres are a hub for the people living within its catchment area. The population of the hat or bazaar can vary daily from a few hundred to a few thousand people as they gather frequently depending on the market. Though men are the main visitors of the market place, we cannot ignore the presence of women, children, adolescent boys and girls, though their number varies dramatically throughout the country, for instance, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts the presence of women in the weekly market is high.

Despite the large transient populations water and sanitation facilities in hats and bazaars are negligible. People are forced to openly defecate and urinate close to food stores, with little opportunities to wash hands. Where latrine opportunities are available there is seldom any specific facilities for women.

Solid waste management is generally absent, indiscriminate dumping of market wastes create an ideal breeding ground for vectors such as rats, flies and mosquitoes. Piles of peels and leaves, fish and animal entrails mixed with inorganic plastics are left to decompose. In most of the cases there are no regular cleaners to clean the market places. The critical aspect of this unhygienic market place is: even the people who are maintaining good hygiene in their home are unable to avoid the potential risk of coming in contact of pathogens from this unhygienic environment where they come to buy their food. In addition, poor hygiene practices have been observed in tea stalls, road-side hotels and sweetmeat shops.

Together, it is evident that a huge gap remains between assurance and action in the prevention of water and excreta borne diseases. The country strategy which aims for “total sanitation” [covering all parts of the country with sanitation facilities] and “sanitation for all” [no one will be left out from sanitation service and facilities] by the year 2010 will be ignoring a large component if hats and bazaars are not properly included.

Despite investing a lot of money and a huge effort given by government and non-government agencies large populations will be facing high risks of contracting the water and excreta borne diseases. From another perspective, the provision of water and sanitation in the market place has the capability of encouraging women under government and NGO led women's Income Generating Activities [IGA] to sell their products directly to the consumer. It has been identified that these women often loose considerable income when selling through middle man principally due to discouragement in going to the market place.

One of the major reasons for not allowing them or their unwillingness to enter the market place is its dirty and unhygienic environment. Sanitation, in terms of latrines, water supply and solid waste management have the capacity to make hats and bazaar safer and cleaner places to work, shop and eat in. Separate sanitation facilities for women can play a good role in creating a congenial environment in the market place for women to trade and have full benefit from IGA programmes. In fine to make the “total sanitation” campaign meaningful, Sanitation in the market place is a must.

This article first appeared in the Daily Star Monday, September 29, 2008.

Indigenous People in CHT Face Worst Water Crisis

An article by Md. Firoj Alam and Nyhola Mong

Names of the many localities in three hill districts under Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have generally ended with the suffixes like Chhara, Chhari, Long, and Khyang, (for example, Satchhara, Betchhara, Bagaichhari, Bilaichhari, Shubalong, Kaslong, Rigrrikhhyang) etc. In tribal language, these suffixes stand for the meaning of spring and stream. So it is easily understandable that many of the localities under Banderban, Rangamati and Khagrachhari have been named after these springs and these names can provide an indication of the important role these springs play in the lives of the twelve ethnic groups of indigenous people living in the CHT for hundreds of years.

The indigenous people are not habituated to use modern water technologies, as they have not been introduced to them like the people of plain districts have been. So the indigenous people have to depend solely on the natural sources of water, particularly on the springs, for drinking, cooking, washing, and bathing, let alone irrigation and cultivation. All of the villages, therefore, have been built adjacent to the springs. Even people have to shift their age old villages in case of the death of a spring near which the village was located. All of the rivers and tributaries in CHT are simply the confluence of hundreds of springs of this region. We all know about the importance of the river Karnuphuli, that keeps the Chittagong port functional, that is getting water from these springs. And same thing happen in case of the Sangu, Naf, Matamuhuri, etc.

It is a bad news for the indigenous people of the CHT that the springs of this region are drying out. It is assumed that a hundred years back, there were as many as 200,000 springs flowing over the CHT area. Presently, there are no statistics of how many springs are still flowing. But the local people can easily understand that many springs across the CHT are dying each year.

The vital spring located at Ghagra, on the way to Chittagong and Rangamati is now simply a remnant of the forceful spring of 7-8 years back which had a good depth of water flowing all year round. A pretty good numbers of springs on the way of Rangamati and Mohalchhari have worn out in the recent years. The famous Nyoungmrong spring at Raikhali union under Rangamti district that has been providing water for irrigation and household work for hundreds of indigenous people round the year is waterless now. Even the Brimong spring which becomes the sole water source after the death of the Nyoungmrong spring is also on the wane. People are now thinking to abandon the hundred years old villages located on the bank of this spring. The Ghumni Ghat Chhara, Satari Chhara, Pengjamrong Chhara, Kolabong Chhara (Mura Chhari Union), Karia Frya Chhara, Manchhari Chhara under Miasachari Union are going to face the same fate causing severe water crisis for the indigenous people living there for many years.
It is a wonder that springs of CHT have not come forth from the melted ice or glaciers as it normally happens in many parts of the world. The springs of the Chittagong Hill Tracts have originated from the drops of water discharged through the tree roots accumulating in the cleft of the hills. However, the sweating of the hills and precipitation reinforces the process. Of course, this wonderful process of spring creation happens only on those hills where thick cover indigenous forests are existing. But the indigenous forests in CHT are depleting gradually due to the over growth of population and injudicious development initiatives of the governments and development agencies.

Let us have a brief discussion on the overgrowth of population and development initiatives of the government. In 1901, the total population of CHT was 124,762 and in 2000, this population size has become 1,325,041. In each decade, the average growth of national population was approximately 18 per cent while in CHT it was 47 per cent till 1997. The population has grown here abnormally because government during the 1979-1997 period patronised the "Bengalis" living in the plain land to be settled in the CHT. This migration of people from other parts of the countries caused an abnormal growth of population in this region. During the decades of the 80s and the 90s, the population increased at the rate of 48 per cent and 67 per cent respectively.

This abnormal growth of population has upset the total demographical and ecological equilibrium in the CHT. Presently the proportion of indigenous to Bengali population has become 52:48, as opposed to 97.5: 2.5 in 1947.

Again, the then Pakistan Government in 1962 made an artificial water reservoir, now famous as Kaptai Lake, by building a dam on the Karnaphuli river to produce hydro-electricity. This lake has grabbed a total of 54,000 acres, i.e 40 per cent of cultivable land of the indigenous people. This decrease of cultivable land and increase of population has created a serious pressure on the forest. Traditionally the indigenous people practice the "slash and burn" system (widely known as jhum) for farming.

For a balance patterned "slash and burn" farming, a hill ideally needs 15-20 years of interval to recover the vegetation burned during the farming. In past, the land and man ratio was ideal and the expected interval in the jhum cycle was maintained. But presently, because of excessive population, this interval has reached to 2-3 years, which is extremely insufficient to allow the vegetation growing to recover the forests. This vicious cycle of jhum cultivation is one of the major reasons of depleting indigenous forests, a precondition for origination of the springs.
The Karnaphuli Paper Mill at Chandrogona, and some other pulp and paper mills across the country that are being fed by the millions of tones of trees and plants coming from CHT have a significant responsibility in deforestation of this area. Each year the Karnophuli Paper Mill alone eats up millions of tones of bamboos, an essential plant for the indigenous people in CHT. Government and some of the development agencies have created industrial forest planting exotic varieties like teak, acacia, and eucalyptus. These exotic verities are creating environmental hazard because these verities impede the natural forestation and eliminate the water table. Further, the depletion of indigenous forests is causing the temperature increase and correctively the precipitation decrease. Thus, the whole spectrums of environmental changes are resulting into the water crisis in CHT.

Bangladesh is claiming of earning a good progress in safe water provision to its 97 per cent of the total population. However, after identification of excessive arsenic (<>This article first appeared in the Daily Star, Friday June 18th 2004.