The New Nation - Internet Edition

THERE was a time when the majority of people in the country who collected their waters from ponds and water bodies for meeting their consumption needs. But such surface waters also were found to be contaminated in some cases that led to gastro-intestinal and other diseases on drinking the same. Thus began the era of lifting underground water through hand tubewells as their waters were considered safe for drinking. The entire landscape of Bangladesh was dotted with tubewells. Then followed the phase of sinking deep tube-wells to extract water for irrigation as the country gradually transformed from rain-fed agriculture to more intensive crop cultivation.

But these developments are found to be not without a price. The hand tubewells that pump out drinking water now contain more than the permissible level of arsenic all over the country. Arsenic was also detected in waters pumped out by deep tubewells. Arsenic-laden water can cause serious diseases including cancer from long time use. Arsenic in waters of deep tube-wells can similarly contaminate crops irrigated by such waters. Again, excessive lifting of underground water on a regular basis at so many places is causing the ground water table to go down. There are too many places where the excessive withdrawal of ground waters have disturbed the soil layers. Lands are facing subsidence conditions in many places including Dhaka city. The cities have turned specially vulnerable to earthquakes because of this land subsidence factor. Thus, from the protection of human health to preventing the disfigurement of land and its calamitous effects, point to the urgency of using surface waters to a far greater degree than is the case now.

But plans will have to be prepared and implemented on a high priority basis to that end. All future water supply plans for the cities should aim to treat and supply surface waters. Conservation of flood water and rain waters must be targeted on a large scale for irrigation activities. Even it is relevant for Bangladesh to start thinking of desalinisation plants to collect fresh water from the sea. Projects of this type should be reserved for the future. But planning and fund mobilisation for them should start early in right earnest. Besides, it is also important to maintain the quality of river water by regulating the discharges of all kinds of effluents in them. This should be ensured before river waters are sought to be used on a large scale.