Yesterday was World Water Day, and the idea behind it was simple: “Whoever you are, wherever you are, water is your human right.”
While we can all get behind the idea of having water for everyone, it is unfortunate that in Bangladesh, we have failed to treat water as the precious resource it is.
This has manifested in many ways: From unplanned urbanization to water body encroachments to an overreliance on groundwater instead of surface water to the the death of the many rivers which make up our nation, we have consistently taken water for granted and, as we speak, Bangladesh and its citizens remain on the verge of an inevitable water crisis.
The precious water we do have, in many parts of the country, have already turned toxic, with 4 million people without access to safe water and 2,000 children annually dying from diarrhoea due to the consumption of contaminated water.
We need to take better care of our water supply.
While the progress and infrastructural development that Bangladesh has experienced over the years has been robust, this cannot continue to come at the cost of public health and safety.
The government should start prioritizing on also saving the environment, and the first step is ensuring that the most ecologically critical parts of our country are under watch.
Moreover, we need to come down hard on river encroachers and others who cause harm to the environment, and move towards reusing and recycling the precious water that we do have.
Experts have already touted the importance of a well-designed sewage system and the need for effluent treatment plants which can purify industrial waste-water.
Water is more important than any other resource we have and there are ways we can ensure that we have enough of it for everyone -- it is time we started acting accordingly.
