Jhilim Union Parishad (UP) chairman Lutful Hasan said the pumps were set up in collaboration with the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) and local people. He said, 'In almost all the villages, I have seen the supply of potable water from submersible pumps not only in agricultural lands but also in ponds for fish farming. There is no one to watch. '
Professor Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan of the Department of Geology and Mining of Rajshahi University has done several studies on groundwater in the Barind area. He said that these committees do not have the technical information to determine how much water can be extracted from any area in real sense. They do not have the technical knowledge to provide services. Although there are various government agencies related to water, there is no coordination among them. There is no separate body for groundwater management.
Although the initiative to set up a single body for groundwater management was taken a couple of years ago, it has stalled. In this situation, World Water Day is being celebrated on Tuesday. This year the theme of the day is 'Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible'.
Groundwater is used in three major cases in Bangladesh. Of these, the use of ground water is the most in agriculture. Then there is industry and household.
The Water Development Board (Paubo) monitors the rise and fall of groundwater in the country through 1,282 wells spread across the country. According to the agency, water was pumped from 130 deep tube wells in Dhaka in 1990. At that time water could be obtained from 22 and a half meters below. In 2005, the number of tube wells increased to 423, with a water level of 54 meters. By 2020, the number of tube wells has exceeded 800. The water level has dropped to 64 meters.
The use of water for irrigation in agriculture is increasing day by day. According to the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), about 5.5 million hectares of land in the country is under irrigation. Groundwater is the source of about 75% of irrigation water during the dry boro season. It is seen that the number of tube wells for irrigation in the country in 1975 was 1 lakh 33 thousand 600. In 2019, this number stands at 16 lakh.
The water level in the Barind region is now falling by one foot every year. A decade ago, the average drop rate was half a foot.
In addition to the high cost of water, there is a lot of misuse of groundwater. A study on water wastage in agriculture, led by Anwar Zahid, director of the Paubo Groundwater Science Directorate, found that 35 percent of the water was useless.
Anwar Zahid told Prothom Alo that many farmers have the idea that if more water is given, the crop will be better. So they give water as they wish.
Who cares about groundwater protection?
DPHE has water supply outside villages, big cities including Dhaka. There are five WASAs in five metros including Dhaka. These two organizations are under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD). And Paubo monitors and analyzes water levels. There is BADC in irrigation.
Water suppliers like DPHE or WASAGULO or BADC have no responsibility for groundwater protection. However, the local government minister. Tajul Islam said in the first light, 'We have in mind to protect the groundwater level. And by 2030, our goal is to take 70 percent of Dhaka WASA water from surface sources.
Although the Water Resources Planning Agency (WARPO) Director General. Delwar Hossain told Prothom Alo that WASAs are not in a position to hold anyone accountable. There is a need for coordination among other water-related organizations.
Rules were formulated in 2016 for the implementation of Bangladesh Water Act 2013. According to the rules, Warpo is the agency responsible for licensing, monitoring and controlling arbitrary extraction of groundwater without household use. Delwar Hossain claimed that Warpo is working to implement that mandate.
Khairul Islam, head of WaterAid's South Asia, told Prothom Alo that 'Warpo has not been able to make its activities visible to the public in the last three and a half years. We need to think about how realistic the implementation of water law is with water planning organizations and their capabilities.
The idea of a single organization
The coordination of the work of various government agencies working on water is also clear in the government documents. And for this the government has the idea of setting up a single institution for the protection of ground water. In November 2020, the Ministry of Water Resources sent a letter to Paubo asking for a proposal to amend the Water Act 2013 and make it a single entity. They made the report in December. Later there is no more loud talk about this. An official at Paubo said on condition of anonymity that a geologist had been named to head the possible structure of the new organization. The engineers did not like it. The report did not move.
The water level in the Barind region is now falling by one foot every year. A decade ago, the average drop rate was half a foot.
In addition to the high cost of water, there is a lot of misuse of groundwater. A study on water wastage in agriculture, led by Anwar Zahid, director of the Paubo Groundwater Science Directorate, found that 35 percent of the water was useless.
Anwar Zahid told Prothom Alo that many farmers have the idea that if more water is given, the crop will be better. So they give water as they wish.
Who cares about groundwater protection?
DPHE has water supply outside villages, big cities including Dhaka. There are five WASAs in five metros including Dhaka. These two organizations are under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD). And Paubo monitors and analyzes water levels. There is BADC in irrigation.
Water suppliers like DPHE or WASAGULO or BADC have no responsibility for groundwater protection. However, the local government minister. Tajul Islam said in the first light, 'We have in mind to protect the groundwater level. And by 2030, our goal is to take 70 percent of Dhaka WASA water from surface sources.
Although the Water Resources Planning Agency (WARPO) Director General. Delwar Hossain told Prothom Alo that WASAs are not in a position to hold anyone accountable. There is a need for coordination among other water-related organizations.
Rules were formulated in 2016 for the implementation of Bangladesh Water Act 2013. According to the rules, Warpo is the agency responsible for licensing, monitoring and controlling arbitrary extraction of groundwater without household use. Delwar Hossain claimed that Warpo is working to implement that mandate.
Khairul Islam, head of WaterAid's South Asia, told Prothom Alo that 'Warpo has not been able to make its activities visible to the public in the last three and a half years. We need to think about how realistic the implementation of water law is with water planning organizations and their capabilities.
The idea of a single organization
The coordination of the work of various government agencies working on water is also clear in the government documents. And for this the government has the idea of setting up a single institution for the protection of ground water. In November 2020, the Ministry of Water Resources sent a letter to Paubo asking for a proposal to amend the Water Act 2013 and make it a single entity. They made the report in December. Later there is no more loud talk about this. An official at Paubo said on condition of anonymity that a geologist had been named to head the possible structure of the new organization. The engineers did not like it. The report did not move.
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