Addressing the water crisis of Dhaka city

Rural population uses surface water, which is contaminated in various ways. They drink tube-well water though not all of them. Out of sixty-four districts the tube-wells of forty-nine districts have been identified as arsenic contaminated. Deep tube-well water is thought to be pure but most of the people don't have access to deep tube-well water. So, water crisis appears severe in rural areas as well.

Dhaka city experiences severe water crisis for its ten million population. It gets further acute during dry season. Really it is difficult to meet the necessity of this huge population. The concentrated population on a small area is normally problem prone. It again creates dangerous situation when voluminous amount of water is extracted from underground. We must find out new ways and means to replace this extracting of water from underground with immediate effect.

People belonging to all classes must be made fully and effectively aware of the water constraint. I can still remember how university students misuse water. Students shave for ten to fifteen minutes everyday and during this total period they keep the tap open to drain water for nothing. I got astonished to see this sort of 'awareness' of wasting water among the would be leaders of the country. The water we use is economic water as it is processed through different stages meaning huge cost. If all kinds of people are not careful and aware of the use of water, the crisis of water cannot be overcome.

The following ways may give us some solutions to ensuring drinkable water for city dwellers:
i. During rainy season from June to October the adjacent areas of the city remain flooded with natural water (rain and flood water). During this period we can use this water without extracting water from underground. Some special mechanisms can be installed to rectify this natural water. WASA should take immediate steps to rectify this water. In this respect we can follow the good examples of Johannesburg
ii. Again everyday we use one crore litres of water. This used water can be used again through proper management. It is a must for saving our environment. We have engineers, water scientists and hydrologists to turn this polluted water into safe water.

iii. We have moderate to heavy rainfall during the rainy season. The rainwater can also be used through proper management in the city. Every big building can have a store for retaining rain water and purifying system. We can install following a local device.

The city corporation of Johannesburg satisfactorily met its water needs. It must be a good example for the city of Dhaka. Dhaka experiences serious water crisis particularly in the dry season. One fourth of its population does not have access to WASA supplied water. The WASA water collected from underground cannot meet the increasing need of the people. Again continuous collection of huge amount of underground water from a concentrated area may invite disaster.

In Johannesburg the city corporation is supplying pure drinking water to its citizens. Every citizen gets six litres of pure water which can be used without boiling and purifying. In ten years time the city corporation has materialised the project. Citizens can have more water for which they need to pay through pre-paid billing system. But six litres they get free of cost. We must give serious thought to such matter.

We get water from WASA but it is not drinkable. To drink it we must boil it which necessitates extra consumption of gas and time meaning huge national loss. The Johannesburg city corporation has implemented such a plan as all the used water of the city is brought under this special programme. The separated filth from the water is used as fertiliser and the water is extremely purified so that the citizens need not boil it again. Dhaka City Corporation may immediately go for such a reusing method.

Md Masum Billah is a researcher - specialist in PACE Programme, BRAC Head Office, Dhaka.