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.