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