People across the country are facing an acute water crisis because they themselves pollute water and are destroying waterbodies indiscriminately, said the local government, rural development and cooperatives minister yesterday.
Syed Ashraful Islam said the waste of water should be stopped as this could lead to serious troubles.
“If water continues to be polluted at this rate, most of the water collected from natural sources as well as surface water cannot be used without purification,” he said while addressing a programme arranged for laying foundation stones for Madunaghat Water Refinery in Chittagong’s Engineers Institute.
“Also, if the destruction of waterbodies continues, the government cannot set up more water refineries as a huge amount of money is needed for such projects,” Ashraful said.
Chittagong Wasa Managing Director AKM Fazlullah presided over the programme while other officials of the organisation were also present.
The Tk1,078 crore facility is part of World Bank’s Chittagong Water Supply Improvement and Sanitation project and was approved by Executive Committee of National Economic Council in January 2011.
Stating that water refineries are costlier than oil refineries to set up, the minister said: “Only implementing such costly projects is not enough to overcome water crisis. We have to preserve our existing waterbodies, including ponds, canals, lakes and rivers, properly.”
Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain suggested making long-term plans to meet the increasing demand for water. “Otherwise, there will be terrible consequences in the future.”
State Minister for Land Saifuzzaman Chowdhury expressed his content with the water refinery project, saying that such projects should have been implemented a decade ago but many challenges, including political problems, got in the way.
