Time to take steps to protect groundwater
Groundwater levels are falling at an alarming rate due to overuse. The Poribesh Bachao Andolon (POBA) has come up with many recommendations to protect groundwater.
These remarks came during a discussion titled ‘Use of Groundwater and Climate Change held at the Child Welfare Council’s auditorium in Topkhana, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Recommendations include,
- Ensuring strict implementation of water laws to protect reservoirs.
- Compulsory incorporation of surface water use in urban planning, housing planning.
- Forcing the water supply authority to use 90 percent of the surface water within the next two years.
- Emphasis on cultivation methods in nature and Eco-friendly water management.
- Taking necessary steps to make the citizens realize the importance of water.
- Increase the river’s navigability by dredging and taking practical steps to get a fair share of the water of the typical river.
- Cultivating natural dependent paddy instead of irrigated and chemical fertilizer dependent in the dry season.
- Removing all illegal structures from the riverside.
- Stop dumping untreated industrial waste, sewage, and vessel waste into the rivers.
- Taking necessary arrangements for the occupation, filling, and preventing pollution of all other rivers and water bodies, including the rivers around Dhaka.
- Using River water in agriculture and industry sectors and purifying it for drinking.
- Construction of suspension bridges or tunnels over the rivers instead of pillar-rich bridges to ensure proper flow and navigability of the river.
