Water is life
IMPORTANCE of water is supreme. For there wouldn't have been life on earth had there been no water there. Water is life. We, for that matter all creatures, have right to life, so we, they all have right to water. Why not, water is there in the environment and we are born in it; we stretch our hand or just move around and find it. This was the situation even, say, a thousand years ago. Then and upto a few centuries thereafter, people also dug their own ponds and wells further enhancing water in the environment. Potable water was accessible by any one where it was naturally available except the deserts where it is naturally scarce. But things have changed over the decades, rather fast changed over the last half of the past-century, and it has saturated to unbearability now. Much of the nature has been taken over by human settlements and whatever natural sources of water still exist are left polluted. You have to buy water, and potable water at much higher a cost. Water also is an economic goods now. In fact water has, become an economic goods following the industrial revolution when it started to flow to urban houses through pipe in exchange for a service charge. The convenience initiated spreaded through urban centres across the world over the century and decades that followed. The period witnessed two great wars that led to indiscriminate destruction necessitating speedy rebuilding and development. This development included provision of utility services against charges. Thereafter urbanisation getting special impetus with rise in population more than before, supply of water became more important. The urbanites didn't mind paying more charges for meeting the cost of its supply. But that didn't ensure its supply to all who have right to it. In course of time sort of crisis started to take root. Recently, at a dialogue centering on water crisis held in the city, the speakers opined that implementation of envisaged projects for reducing water scarcity and increasing supply of potable water. Styled as 'North South Dialogue' it was jointly organised by End Water Poverty Campaign (supported by Water Aid Bangladesh), Fresh Water Action Network South Asia-Bangladesh and Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council-Bangladesh Chapter. Participated by donor country/agency representatives and local key sector actors the dialogue was arranged to deliberate on and find ways to bridge the so-called north-south gap. Bridging this gap means implementation of projects with the donors' fund that goes back unutilized. Implementation of such projects would in turn mean availability of water to the poor at a subsidy who just cannot meet its economic cost. The situation with water has evolved from a state of its abundance to its restricted availability, not over the past millennium, rather in a past couple of centuries. Potable water is so costly now even in a supposedly water affluent country like Bangladesh that it sells at Tk 10 a litre (pet bottle). How many in this poor country can dare afford it? The poor obviously cannot. But they are an absolute majority and they are virtually living on more or less polluted water. This is a dangerous situation. Every day the number of victims of water borne diseases is swelling. The poor have been habituated to procure there required water from the environment they live in. It was not so unsafe and hard till the seventies of the past century. Thereafter with population boom taking on supporting spaces, such sources started to shrink and get polluted under pressure. Ground water level also dropped for over exploitation. And the crisis began, and more that in cities, Dhaka in particular. There of course have been efforts to mitigate. Government departments took up programmes, some NGOs specifically started working in water and sanitation sector. And there have been inflow of funds from donors. But the results have always been fractional and never of a permanent nature. There, of course, have been reasons for this. The speakers at the dialogue referred to above deliberated on some of these. One of such reasons has been pointed out as institutional weakness. True, we are a poor country, but most of such projects did not suffer lack of funding. Rather it has been lack of efficiency that led to lot of wastage and delay in the implementation process of project appreciating its cost and often ultimately its abandonment. But that not because of fund shortage, as even after wastage lot of fund money had to be returned to donors being not utilized within the time or extended time frame. Not only fund utilisation but project flexibility has also become important for any solution vis-a-vis demographic situation. Rural-urban migration continues unabated while population growth remains not so controlled. In such a situation even an implemented project has every chance of becoming ineffective or inadequate within a few years not to speak of any taking too much time in implementation. So institutional reform and capacity building is a must for success of any mitigation effort. They think and perhaps rightly so, that government in Bangladesh, still considered a poor country, has a low income so its expectation cannot be very high. Well, Bangladesh need not expect too high but it can go for what is appropriate, what is necessary. And Bangladesh is also not an aid dependent country. It can take up programmes on its own, and it should. Donors help initiate projects and it appreciates their concern. By now water crisis has taken a serious turn with surface water being polluted and its availability shrunk, and ground water level dropping as aquifers run dry. So government should hasten implementation of undertaken viable projects in the sector. And for immediate satiation of acute demand may take some short-term mitigation projects. But long-term solution is a must for meeting the demands over the coming decades. There must be all out effective approach to simultaneously preserve surface water bodies and recharge ground water aquifers. This is a huge task of enormous size. But it has to be undertaken to ensure access of all to the essential who has right to it, albeit as an economic goods at the lowest affordable cost. Just not let any one suffer for want of it. Water is part of environment. We are pledge-bound to preserve nature for our own survival. We must try to conserve water in nature more for our life. For water is life.
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