The Daily Star               Wed. December 11, 2002 
    

      Acute drinking water crisis in Netrakona



      UNB, Netrakona


      People in Netrakona have been facing an acute shortage of drinking water 
      for a long time due to lack of initiative to repair the disordered 
      tubewells. 
      Finding no other alternative, people of the district are compelled to use 
      contaminated pond and canal water causing outbreak of different water 
      borne diseases like dysentery, diarrhoea and jaundice.
      Tubewells sunk at government initiative are not sufficient to meet the 
      increasing demand for water. Moreover, most of the tubewells remained out 
      of order throughout the year.
      Water supply is also seriously being hampered in the workable tubewells 
      due to sharp fall in ground water level.
      Locals alleged that the district administration in general and local 
      Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) in particular so far took 
      no proper initiative to repair or replace the disordered tubewells.
      An engineer of local DHE told that they have recently undertaken repair 
      works of disordered tubewells after getting the approval from the higher 
      authorities who took much time in this regard.