Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today directed the Wasa authorities to set up two separate water-supply lines --one for drinking and another for general use-- for the city-dwellers to stop wastage and thereby resolve the nagging water crisis.
Hundreds of water bodies and small rivers in the greater Sylhet region are already facing a water crisis during the dry season, according to Bangladesh Water Development Board, even before India has begun construction of the contentious Tipaimukh dam project upstream in Manipur that has triggered widespread environmental fears for the region.
Heat, outage, water crisis cripple city life
Life in the capital has become utterly miserable over the last ten days due to a severe heat wave accompanied with repeated load shedding, an acute water crisis, shortage of gas supply, infestation of mosquitoes, and the resultant near epidemic of diseases like diarrhoea.
Water scarcity in the capital has worsened in the past few weeks due to frequent load shedding and fall in groundwater level.
Bangladeshi children carry empty water pots as they perform during a road side dance drama to observe World Water Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, March 22, 2009. The banner in Bangla reads "Safe water right for all."
With the theme "Shared Water-Shared Opportunities," the World Water Day 2009 is being observed with due significance in the city today.
People of Senpara Parbata in the city's Mirpur area blocked road yesterday demanding uninterrupted water supply.
With deterioration of waterlogging in Kobadak basin areas, over 75,000 people living there are passing miserable days amid crisis of food and drinking water. At least 85 villages in 28 unions in Tala and Kalaroa upazilas in Satkhira and Jhikargachha, Manirampur and Keshabpur upazilas in Jessore district were inundated as water entered the areas overflowing banks of the silted river Kabodak.
Perennial waterlogging paralyses life at Raripara village, like many other areas in Kalaroa upazila. Photo: STAR
The Brahmaputra-Jamuna river system on Sunday kept swelling upstream, said the flood forecasting and warning centre. The swelling is likely to continue for the next 72 hours.
The Ganges-Padma river system was also swelling on Sunday at a slow place, inundating more areas, the warning centre said.
