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