The looming crisis of clean water supply and sanitation

This year the UN World Water Day on March 22 focused on the theme, 'Glacier Preservation,' highlighting the critical role of glaciers in sustaining life and the water cycle.

However, many analysts monitoring the clean water crisis in Bangladesh and the neighbouring region have referred to the growing emergency as a calamity with acute dimensions that requires urgent action. Very correctly their attention has been drawn to Dhaka's groundwater drying up alarmingly. Experts in this context have blamed WASA's impractical management. Some have pointed out that the old channel of the Buriganga is now like a mere canal in the Vakurta area, connecting the Dhaleshwari and the Turag and dividing the Savar and Keraniganj upazila. The media has pointed out that the effect of the WASA's installation of a good number of deep tube wells in the area has led to the residents of Vakurta struggling to get water supply via their hand tubewells due to the fast-declining groundwater level. It has also emerged that to get any water from the ground, the residents have to install a powerful pump, which usually costs Tk 40,000 and is beyond the affordability of many in the area. It is also being alleged that WASA is taking water from the rural areas for the city dwellers.

It has also been pointed out that several lakh residents of Vakurta and Tetuljhora unions in Savar and Taranagar union in Keraniganj are facing similar difficulty. As many as 20,000 hand tubewells in the area have gone dry.

Dhaka WASA has, however, denied drying up the grounds. A total of 42 deep tubewells have been installed in the Vakurta area and 1,227 in Dhaka and its surrounding areas, said Abdul Kader, Deputy Chief of Public Relations at Dhaka WASA. All those pumps are extracting water from the aquifer 400 to 1,200 feet deep, he said, adding that about 2,000 private deep tubewells are also in operation in the city.

It has also been reported that the existing water services of WASA heavily rely on groundwater, with about 70 per cent of the water supply provided by Dhaka WASA being sourced from aquifers. Apparently, the rest comes from refining the waters of Shitalakhiya, Buriganga and the Padma by the five water treatment plants dotted around Dhaka and its surrounding areas.

Interestingly, Dhaka WASA has claimed that it produced about 2,680 million liters of water (mld) per day for 20 million residents of the capital and its suburban areas, according to its annual report of fiscal 2022-23. As per Dhaka WASA's projection, the demand for water in 2025 is expected to rise to around 3,598 mld per day.

This means more water has to be extracted from the aquifer -- an unsustainable practice, as per the water supply master plan of Dhaka WASA published in 2014. Despite annual recharge every year, there is now an overall declining trend in groundwater level due to over-extraction, according to the master plan. It may be recalled that it advocated shifting the bulk source of water from groundwater to surface water to limit the supply from deep tube wells to 1,260 mld per day. However, Anwar Zahid, a senior groundwater researcher has observed that large-scale extraction from such aquifers may cause a permanent depletion of water level. Apparently, in the 1970s, the groundwater level was less than one meter below the surface. Now, it has dropped to 70 metres, according to Zahid.

In 2022, the groundwater levels in the city's densely populated areas of Mirpur, Monipur, Sabujbagh, Tejgaon, and Basabo were 66, 63, 66 and 63 metres below the surface respectably. In contrast, in river-adjacent areas of Mohammadpur, Gandaria and Hazaribagh, the levels are at 36.5, 21 and 33 metres respectively. This is causing the groundwater level to deplete every year by 1 to 1.5 metres.

 The key principle of sustainable groundwater management is ensuring that annual water extraction does not exceed the natural recharge rate. Consequently, if the government does not take any measures, the groundwater level in densely populated areas is likely to drop to 100 metres by 2050. The terrible effects of such a scenario is also emerging in Dhaka's Dhanmondi area.

Such evolving water crisis is already tormenting city dwellers and WASA definitely needs to do more.

 Relevant authorities need to understand that the coming summer heat will be excruciating enough without having to suffer through an acute water crisis. Many Dhaka dwellers, particularly in Rampura, Moghbazar and Jatrabari areas, are being forced to buy water in order to survive, or go to relative's houses to take showers, as there has been very little or no water supply in these areas for the last one month. Such a scenario has led to pleas from frustrated city dwellers for necessary respite from the relevant authorities. What WASA probably needs to do is to undertake and implement a medium to long term plan to resolve the rising water crisis in a sustainable manner, and utilise rain and floodwater to ease the pressure on groundwater, and do so without any bureaucratic delays.

We need to remember that the principle of leaving no one behind is central to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The progress toward achieving SDG 6, which aims to ensure universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene by 2030 is increasingly under threat with recent development funding cuts posing a significant barrier.

As humanitarian funding diminishes, vital water and sanitation projects, especially in low-income and crisis-affected regions, are facing severe setbacks.

Since Donald Trump has taken Office for the second time, the US has unfortunately reduced nearly 90 per cent of the USAID budget with massive implications for global health, life-saving humanitarian efforts, water and food systems. Followed by the US budget cut, British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer has also announced reduction and a budget cut to the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) to 0.3 per cent of the gross national income, ostensibly to beef-up defence spending - (this is well below the UN's 0.7 per cent target for ODA contributions). Some other European countries like the Netherlands, France and Switzerland have also slashed their aid budgets.

These cuts are having huge impacts on basic needs such as clean water and sanitation as some of the poorest countries in the world depend on USAID for over a fifth of their total assistance - making up about 11 per cent of their income. The recent reductions in USAID have left 50,000 people in Colombia, more than 270,000 people in Mali, and more than 400,000 people in Northern Burkina Faso without access to basics such as clean water. The implications will be catastrophic for countries already struggling to meet their SDG targets.

One also needs to recall that back in 2020, UNICEF and WHO stated that by 2030 the process in which sanitation coverage is increasing, the world will face extremely serious difficulties to achieve the SDG sanitation goals. Sanitation is already one of the most off-track SDGs. With the cuts in funding, it is very unlikely that sanitation coverage can meet the SDG targets. Globally, nearly 800,000 children die every year due to diarrheal disease. According to WHO, 44 per cent of children with diarrhea in low-income countries receive the recommended treatment with little progress since 2000. As diarrheal disease burden ramps up on children and other vulnerable communities, morbidity and mortality will increase. Poor access to water and sanitation also has serious implications for climate adaptation, girls' education as well as food, health and nutrition security.

Professor Lyla Mehta of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences has observed that since October 2023, Israel has deprived aid to two million Palestinians living in Gaza and denied them even the barest minimum access to water and sanitation. The denial of fuel and electricity has also led to a collapse in desalination plants, reducing water supplies for drinking, washing, and sanitation. This deliberate denial of basic rights to water and sanitation has led to thousands of deaths.

While the US government appears proud to have diminished the dimensions of USAID due to the nationalist 'America First' project, we expect better from European countries. The UK and other European nations need to listen to Keynes' advice from 1941 and further tax the super-wealthy. This would be a less painful way to meet increased defence and social spending without compromising aid budgets and the basic rights including access to clean water and sanitation of the world's most vulnerable people. We need to remember that we all share the same global system.

In this context it is heartening to know that the World Bank will be providing US Dollar 280 million for improving water supply system in Chattogram.  Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky, Secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD), and Ms Gayle H Martin, Country Director (Interim), World Bank, has recently signed this deal. The Chattogram WASA under the Local Government Division (LGD) will implement the project to upgrade the water supply system in the port city by December 31, 2030. The project is aimed at increasing access to safe, reliable and climate-resilient water supply and improved sanitation in the port city; and improving the performance and financial sustainability of Chattogram WASA.

According to the ERD, US Dollar 140.00 million equivalent to 21.345 billion Japanese Yen will be provided from the Scale-up Window (SUW) of the World Bank which will charge 0.25 per cent as front-end fee. The repayment period of this loan is 35 years including a grace period of 5 years.

The repayment period of another US Dollar 140 million loan will be 12 years including a grace period of 6 years. No Service Charge, Commitment Fee and Interest will be paid on the amount withdrawn from this loan, the ERD has said.

Muhammad Zamir, a former Ambassador, is an analyst specialised in foreign affairs, right to information and good governance. muhammadzamir0@gmail.com