Khulna: ‘Salt water all around. Salt water rises in the tube well.
Food and water are very difficult. Who should put this machine in the neighboring giram. Salt water is sweet. strange world Buy clean water and eat legally. Five taka in the pitcher and five taka in the van. poor people In the heat of the day, I drank water to my heart’s content.
Karima Khatun of Motherbaria village of Maharajpur Union of Koira coastal upazila of Khulna was saying these words with a heavy heart.
Nasreen, a housewife of Chatkatla village in Bagali Union, said in the same tone, ‘Water is not good, it is not sweet, we cannot be famous, it is salt of Jammer. Pani Anti Mila goes far. Tap water salt, we can not eat fair. In summer the water in the pond is salty, in the rainy season we drink fresh water’.
Shafayet Hossain, a resident of Shanta village of Paikgacha upazila, said that the drinking water ponds have also dried up in the intense heat. Housewives and other members of the house walk miles with jugs to collect water. Although there is water around, there is no potable water anywhere, it is all salty.
There is now an acute water crisis in the coastal upazilas of Bagerhat and Satkhira like Khulna. Around 750,000 people in coastal Morelganj, Sharankhola, Mongla and Rampal upazilas of Bagerhat are facing a shortage of fresh water. Tube wells and deep tube wells have become non-functional in most areas. Due to the salinity of water in tubewells like rivers and canals, people store rainwater there for consumption. That water has run out.
At least 10 unions of Shyamnagar and Asashuni upazilas of Satkhira are crying for clean water. waiting for rain water during monsoon; And in the dry season one has to run kilometer after kilometer for a jug of water. In most of the families, the responsibility of collecting water rests on the shoulders of women.
After finishing all household chores, women have to run to collect water. Along with frequent natural hazards, water levels are falling in many parts of the coastal region, experts said. As a result, many deep tube wells have become useless. Countless coastal people are fighting for fresh water every day. Some of them are drinking water collected from ponds, rain or desalination plants. Those who fail to collect water from these sources, have to drink saline water.
The amount of salinity in rivers and soil in coastal areas is increasing day by day due to various reasons including climate change, reduced water flow. Saline area is also increasing. And crop production is being disrupted in these areas. The overall socio-economic situation including the food security of the southern region is under threat. In this situation, the experts suggest the creation of freshwater reservoirs along with research on salt-rich crop production.
According to the Soil Resources Institute, soil salinity of 4 ds/m is considered normal for crop production. However, their study showed that soil salinity in Paikgacha averaged 11 DS/m per month. At some places the salinity is found to be 17 dS/m. On the other hand, the average salinity in the river in these areas is more than 16 DS/m.
GM Mostafizur Rahman, Chief Scientific Officer of Soil Resources Development Institute said, due to the intensity of salinity, the arable land in coastal areas is becoming uncultivated, yield is decreasing. New land is becoming saline every year.
He gave various suggestions including inventing salt-tolerant crop varieties in coastal areas, creating fresh water reservoirs, and stopping underground water extraction to avoid dire situations in the near future.
Member of Parliament for Khulna-6 (Koira-Paikgacha) constituency in the afternoon of Rebaba (April 21). Rashiduzzaman told BanglaNews that we have started distributing rainwater harvesting. There are many people in my constituency. I spoke to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina about the problem of fresh water, she assured. The Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden spoke to him during his visit to Koira, he also assured. Through the logic project of rainwater harvesting, much of the scarcity of fresh water on the coast can be met. Ground water is not safe here. Only rain water is safe. We are trying to make such a system so that people can store rainwater throughout the year.
Bangladesh Time: 1650 hours, April 21, 2024
MRM/AAT
