The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Chairman Prof Muzaffar Ahmad yesterday said mismanagement and corruption caused wastage of about 30-50 percent in different water sector projects in Bangladesh.

He said this while presenting the 'Global Corruption Report-2008: Corruption in Water Sector' at the CIRDAP auditorium in the city.

Prof Muzaffar said that much more financial irregularities take place during floating of tenders for water sector projects and in their implementation process. A section of bureaucrats of different ministries that deal with water sector projects are involved in corrupt practices.

He said influential persons having political connections with the help of engineers and other officials were engaged in corruption in various water sector projects like irrigation, river digging and flood control.

According to the TI report, corruption has made the cost of water more expensive in some developing countries than in cities like New York, London or Rome, threatening billions of lives.

The Berlin-based non-governmental organization found in its latest global corruption report that bribes, graft and other forms of wrongdoing are the main reasons for a "global water crisis" that is speeding the pace of environmental degradation.

The report said water sector corruption ranges from petty bribery in water delivery to the looting of irrigation and hydropower funding.

Such corruption -- seen in rich countries as well as poor -- threatens to exacerbate a global food shortage.

"Corruption in the water sector puts the lives and livelihoods of billions of people at risk," the TI report said. "The onset of climate change and the increasing stress on water supply around the world make the fight against corruption in water more urgent than ever."

Calling its report the first to study the impact of water

sector corruption, TI said 1.2 billion people have no guaranteed access to water and 2.6 billion are without proper sanitation.

Irrigated lands help produce 40 percent of the world's food supply but corruption in irrigation is rampant, TI said.

The report said in India corruption adds about 25 percent to irrigation contracts. Elsewhere, graft can increase the cost of connecting households to water networks by up to 30 percent.

"Corruption in drinking water and sanitation emerges at every point along the water delivery chain," it said.

The report said industrialized nations were not immune to corruption, with bid-rigging and price-fixing seen in water infrastructure projects in Europe and the United States.

"Corruption in the water sector is widespread and makes water undrinkable, inaccessible and unaffordable," TI wrote.