3 SW districts ignored in govt policies

They said over 50 lakh people in Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat districts are facing crisis of safe water due salinity in surface water and high rate of arsenic contamination of groundwater.

The problem has been aggravated over the years due to declining flow of the Ganges, deposit of silt in Mathabhanga river, unplanned coastal embankments and shrimp cultivation. The bio-diversity of the Sundarbans is being destroyed.

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But successive governments neither include the region in the 25-year National Water Policy and the National Safe Water Supply and Sanitation Policy nor take up any comprehensive plan to resolve the problems, they said.

The Roundtable on 'Problems of Safe Water in South Western Region and its Solution' was organised jointly by the daily Purbanchal and a local NGO Uttaran, with assistance from CARE and CIDA. It was held at IDRT at Mubarakpur in Tala upazila.

CARE Project's Team Leader Manirul Mamun presented the keynote paper. It was addressed by, among others, Satkhira Public Health Engineering (PHE) Executive Engineer Abdul Hamid Mia, Tala Upazila Nirbhahi Officer (UNO) SM Mustafizur Rahman, Principal Jafar Alam, Greater Khulna Development Sangram Samannay Committee leader Sheikh Ashrafuzzaman, Advocate Iftekhar Ali PP, Khulna Press Club President Sheikh Abu Hasan, secretary Farooq Ahmed, Satkhira Press Club President Manirul Islam, the Satkhira Chitra Editor Anisur Rahim, Workers Party leader Mustafa Lutfullah, Reporters Club Convenor Mizanur Rahman, Prof Abu Ahmed, Kalyan Bannerjee, freedom fighter Moral Abdus Salam, principal Safiqul Islam, Union Parishad Chairman Jaglul Haidar, Pranab Ghosh Bablu and Advocate Shahidul Islam Pintu.

Purbanchal Managing Editor Begum Ferdousi Ali in the chair. It was moderated by Uttaran Director Shahidul Islam.

The speakers said India's river inter-linking project will aggravate the problems and create an environmental havoc in Bangladesh. Besides affecting the Sundarbans' ecosystem, salinity will penetrate 80 kilometers inside river systems in Bangladesh, affecting agriculture, forestry and fisheries, they added.

The ground water level in the region will fall further if more water is diverted from international rivers in the upstream.

This will increase arsenic contamination of groundwater and salinity in surface water, they said.

They stressed on close cooperation between government agencies and NGOs to ensure safe water supply in the area by 2010, as planned by the government.

They also emphasised the need for creating a social awareness about the problems.