The Independent
 
June 22, 2004

 
Cry for drinking water everywhere: Salinity, arsenic put Khulna people in peril


KAMRAN REZA CHOWDHURY BACK FROM KHULNA, SATKHIRA



More than 50 lakh people in 25 upazilas under greater Khulna district have been facing severe 
crisis of potable water as the level of salinity and presence of arsenic in underground water 
has crossed tolerable limits. 

People are forced to buy contaminated water from ponds, which are located up to five kilometres 
away from their homestead, because tube-wells and deep tube-wells cannot ensure drinkable water 
to millions of people living in 25 upazilas of Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat districts.

Pond is the only source of water in most of the remote villages under these districts. They are 
to drink and cook food with muddy pond water for the underground saline water is contaminated 
with arsenic. 

In areas where water is scarce, selling of water has become a profession. The traders collect water 
from ponds in large containers and supply it to the comparatively well off families by carrying them 
on three-wheeler vans and boats. 

The poor people, 90 per cent of whom are women and children who do not have the ability to buy water, 
go to a specific pond which is up to five kilometres away from homes.

People alleged that indiscriminate shrimp cultivation in the three districts has turned sweet water 
of some ponds saline, so the only remaining source of sweet water - ponds - in the shrimp cultivating 
areas is getting saline day by day.

Shrimp cultivation has replaced traditional crops like paddy and wheat. One can only see saline water 
around the whole area, but not a sweet water pond to collect water from.

In these areas, people collect water from deep tube-wells which sometime lift saline water. The ground 
water level is going down day by day.

The scarcity of fresh water in the whole region is likely to worsen further with the rise of sea level 
and intrusion of saline water deep into the greater Khulna district owing to climate change, which is 
responsible for rise of temperature of the earth and melting of more ice. 

As per a study of the World Bank, The Patuakhali, Khulna and Barisal regions are most at risk from sea 
level rise. 

On an average, the sea would move in about 10 kilometres, but in the Khulna region, the sea would inundate 
18 per cent of the country by 2100.

People of the districts demand that the government should set up overhead tanks and install a network of 
supplying pond water after purification. Again, harvest of rainwater is another option for supplying pure 
drinking water in the areas.

"We are forced to drink contaminated pond water. Because, we cannot drink or use saline water of the tube-wells 
and deep tube-wells," Aklima Khatun of Sriulah village in Ashashuni upazila of Satkhira district told The 
Independent on Thursday while carrying water from the pond adjacent to Chowdhury Bari. 

The pond, spreading stench, is the only source of fresh water for about 2,000 people.

The new water traders collect muddy and unsafe water from the pond on forest office premises beside the Kholpetua 
river in Nildumur under Shyamnagar upazila of Satkhira and supply it to the consumers at the rate of Taka five per 
20-litre plastic container. 

The water suppliers collect water free of cost from the pond and carry those to Gabura across the river, which 
is about 1.5 kilometres wide.

"Poor villagers, including Bawalis and Mawalis, collect water from this pond owned by Hazi Sohrab," told 
Mariam (35), a resident of Gabura, who collects water walking about five kilometres distance. 

She said it was the irony of Gabura people to fetch water.

All sweet water ponds in village Puijala and south Puijala have become saline due to massive cultivation of 
shrimp in the whole area. 

There is only one deep tube-well for about 5,000 people living in the two villages and the women collect 
water walking up to five kilometres from their houses. 

"If the government does not bring shrimp cultivation under a discipline through formulating a land use policy, 
the waning underground water would turn brackish," A K M Shafiqul Islam, president of Paani Committee (Water 
Committee), a civil society group, told The Independent.

The people of Budhata, which is 14 kilometres away from Satkhira town, buy water from the vendors who fetch 
sweet water in large containers from Satkhira. A 30-litre container costs Taka eight to nine.

Women and children are the worst victims. They have to carry water from long distances. A splash of rain 
makes the kutcha roads slippery.

The situation is the same in Munshiganj under Shyamnagar, Morelganj under Bagerhat, Ashashuni, Tala under 
Satkhira, Dacope of Khulna districts. 

"The government has given no attention to the people in the areas affected by saline water. 

If rain water is harvested and supplied through pipes, people's sufferings for want of fresh water would 
come down remarkably," Faruque Ahmed, a local resident, told this newspaper