Climate, SDG, Water and Sanitation

Water is a right, sanitation and a dignity. Water and sanitation affects personal life, social life and public life very hugely. In SDG 6 water, waste water, water ecosystem, universal coverage of drinking water and healthy sanitation are being discussed. SDG 6 deals with safely managed drinking water, sanitation and hand wash, waste water treatment, water with good ambient quality, changing water use efficiency in terms of per unit of fresh water withdrawal against the GDP, freshwater withdrawal as proportion of water reserves, degree of Integrated Water Resource Management and trans boundary Integrated Water Management. Water related ecosystem, including mountain, forest, wetland, river, aquifer and lakes, are also an important agenda of SDG. Including other issues increase of ODA and support local engagement in different way are the tools for implementing SDG 6. 

In 2017, globally 2.2 billion (29%) people were lack of safely managed drinking water at the same time 4.2 billion (55%) people were lack of healthy sanitation and 892 million (11.7%) people had the open defecation. In 2019, before COVID, 3 billion (42.8%) people lack of basic hand wash facility at home. It is predicted that by 2030, 700 million people of the globe could be displaced from their present habitat due to scarcity of water. 

In Bangladesh performance both in sanitation and pure drinking water is good. In SDG the target set a bit higher. In 2015, 87% people of Bangladesh had access to safely managed drinking water but according to BBS, and due to change of definition of safely managed drinking water the performance became lower to less than 50%. Our water quality is also reducing day by day, water of ponds, rivers, canals and so on. It is good news that we could shift the tannery industries from the heart of Dhaka city to outskirts of Dhaka. But yet to develop the system of wastewater treatment of these tannery industries along with other waste water of the city to meet the environmental standard. More over wastewater treatment facilities have been developed in different industries and factories. But due to poor implementation of laws and rules situation did not develop much; monitoring and supervision for the industrial wastewater needs to be strengthened. For irrigation in Bangladesh 79% of water are from underground with more efficiency by introducing buried pipe for drainage, drought tolerant verity of rice and other good practices. It was estimated that one kilogram of rice needs 3000-5000 liters of water. But after introduction of Alternate Wet and Dry (AWD) method it is reduced by 15-30%. Many steps has been taken for dredging the rivers, canals and ponds, using some of the ponds for the drinking water purpose, converting the irrigation system from underground to surface water, using the technology in agriculture for less water and overall efficiency are being increased. 

Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was one of the members of High-Level Panel on Water (HLPW) initiated by the United Nations and World Bank in 2016 consists of 11 heads of the state and government those who had remarkable footprint in water and sanitation and one expert. They worked for long two years and came out with a document for better use of water. The outcome document includes value of water, alternate use of water and a call by the members of the high-level panel on water for the whole globe. ‘Turn off’ the denial on scarcity of water, misuse and pollution of water, destruction of water sources, bacteria and path to adulteration of water etc; ‘Turn on’ the need to have solutions, new and innovative ideas, incentives, resilience, and political will for hard decisions; and ‘Turn up’ the intensity to water promise, volume of water dialogue, urgency to meet water needs, funding on water, and value on water are three focused area of the outcome document. This team submitted their report to UN General Assembly in 2018 which is being followed for the implementation of SDG on water globally. Arsenic is a big problem as we extract water from underground. In our country Managing Aquifer Recharge and Valuing water is being taken as important agenda. We extract huge quantity of water from underground for drinking, irrigation, house hold activities and industry with less opportunity to recharge. Both flood and rain water can’t be contained because of siltation of rivers and canals. Hence underground water level each year goes down and normal irrigation pump are failing to discharge water. To bring back water table, dredging of all water bodies, rain water harvest and use for recharge are planned. Water is priceless and sometimes for this, contamination of water and misuse of water is rampant. So, in the planning process, how best we can value water is being considered. 

In sanitation a large number of people especially in the slums and urban areas use shared latrine. Some of these are improved version latrine, but in terms of healthy, maybe don't fulfill all the parameters. Supply of drinking water and improved sanitation gave us multiple dividends in improving health and hygiene, better life expectancy and reducing child mortality. Drinking water is a scarce in cities and the coastal area; intrusion of saline water throughout the coastal belt made the situation of supply of drinking water much more difficult. In those area government initiated to supply drinking water by using reverse osmosis system using solar panel. 

74.8% people have hand wash facilities at home. Open defecation is almost zero but unimproved and shared facility is for 85 million people which is 53% of our population. Unfortunately, it was only 34% in 1990 and we could not achieve the MDG of halving the population without access to improved sanitation. Fecal sludge treatment is almost absent except in some residences; open to water is very common. Some of the train and most of the water vessels especially the steamers and launch had the system of open defecation spoiling water body and land. In the urban areas number of public toilet and its quality still is a question. In the last decade the sanitation especially public toilet developed a lot in the urban area but still a huge gap of demand and supply both in quality and quantity. For the women at work in the capital city and also in the small towns sufficient public toilet and drinking water facilities are needed. 

In the capital city Dhaka, up till now major water is sourced from underground. Steps has been taken by Dhaka WASA with a program of ‘Turn-around Dhaka WASA’ to provide 100% drinking water from the surface source along with sanitation and waste water treatment. Some good practices of DWASA in paperless billing, reduce share of non-revenue water, supplying drinking water at affordable price, using more ICT along with AI in water and sanitation management are giving better dividend; these are replicable in other cities.

We have 57 trans-boundary rivers mostly with India having water sharing agreement of river Ganges and discussion on water sharing of Teesta and other rivers are going on without no specific result on water sharing but exchange of water related information of these rivers and river basin. River ecosystem guideline for the integrated water sources is under progress. For integrated water management and restoration of the rivers around Dhaka city we have a special project for restoration of four rivers that is Buriganga, Shitalakkha, Balu and Turag. Following that, the other rivers are brought under the management of a high-powered committee headed by the local government minister. We understand that the water quality of the rivers is very important and we use water from Meghna and Padma for supplying drinking water of Dhaka City. Water quality of Padma, Meghna, Jamuna and all other rivers are now under the close supervision of this strong monitoring committee. In 2013, we had our Water Acts and other related instrument to enforce the standards and qualities of water. Hatirjhil, a land mark wetland restoration project changed the beauty of Dhaka city with a better echo system to be followed by Gulshan lake development project. Covid 19 like all other social development parameter is taking back the water and sanitation success of our country. Government is working for the after covid Green growth strategy of public health with more job opportunity. The Delta Plan 2100 aims to use water resources of the country in a most efficient way implementing with intermediary strategic plan of ‘Developed Bangladesh by 2041’.                                                          

Writer: Former principal secretary and former principal coordinator (SDG)