Water Management in PVT Hand
‘Govt move will deprive citizens of basic right’
Though the government, in a draft water law, recognises that access to safe water is a basic right, its intention of handing over services like drinking water supply and sewage management to profit-seeking private sectors will deprive citizens of this right.
The comment came at a discussion organised by Bangladesh Water Rights Forum on the draft Bangladesh Water Law 2012, being formulated under Bangladesh Water Policy 1999, at Dhaka Reporters Unity in the city.
The Ministry of Water Resources formulated and uploaded a part of the draft on its official website in the last week of February for comments within March 8, 2012.
Sub-section 1 of Section 16 of the draft law says that the government will formulate rules and regulations to control private sectors involved in supplying drinking water and managing the sewage system.
However, it does not go into the details of the rules and regulations, said the discussants.
Similarly, the draft law mentions the names of four authorities, including National Water Resources Council, Executive Committee of the National Water Resources Council, Tribunal and Appellate Authorities.
But it has neither finalised the authority nor the activities of these four bodies. It only mentions that those would be formulated later by the government and published through gazettes, they added.
Though the draft recognises the right to water as a fundamental right, it has not ensured people's “traditional rights” to water and did not take their perceptions on certain water related issues into cognisance, said the speakers.
Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan was the keynote speaker at the discussion.
She said the draft should specifically mention the minimum amount of water a citizen can avail.
It should also mention that the aim of water management is to ensure the rights of the present population over water and make sure that water is available for the next generation, she added.
She criticised Section 18 of the draft for providing the ministry with the authority to declare an area as a special zone based on its economic activity without making it mandatory to take people's opinion first.
Such provisions will raise questions on the objectivity of the law, creating apprehension in people's minds over whether any vested group is behind any declaration, she added.
Section 25 of the draft too could raise controversies as it is about filling up one or more branches of a river to reclaim land, she said.
Shamsul Huda, executive director of Association for Land Rights (ALRD), moderated the session.
Zakir Hossain, chief executive of Nagorik Udyog, Rezanur Rahman, representative of Nijera Kori, and Advocate Rafiqul Alam of Incidin Bangladesh also spoke at the programme.
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