PM for sharing experience among delta countries

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday stressed importance of the sharing of water management experiences among Delta Coalition member countries for the benefit of the future generation of densely populated delta areas. 
At an international water conference in Dhaka, experts, including former BRAC University vice-chancellor Ainun Nishat, stressed the need for protecting ecosystems in deltas and river basins taking basin-wise water management, integrated water resources management and transborder water cooperation to avoid physical and economic water scarcity. 
While inaugurating the conference, participated by experts and stakeholders from different countries and international organisations, the prime minister said that water management was a very crucial issue for Bangladesh as river erosion posed an additional problem for the riverine country, according to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha. 
Hasina, one of the members of a UN special panel for water and sanitation, said that steps were underway to build reservoirs in industrial and housing areas, installing rainwater harvesting system and draining out wastes and polluted water. 
She said that water use patterns had been changed due to the increased population, fast urbanisation and technological differences but the threat to the availability of drinkable water ‘still persists.’
Access to drinkable water cannot be ensured for about one billion people of the world till now as less than 1 per cent water resource of the earth is considered as safe for drinking, she said. 
The prime minister claimed that 87 per cent people were brought under safe water coverage while in urban areas the figure was 98 per cent.
She also said that 99 per cent people of the country by now were brought under sanitation coverage and 61 per cent of them were using cent per cent healthy sanitation systems. 
The rate of defecation in open places dropped drastically below 1 per cent during the last eight years while the figure was 42 per cent even in 2003, she said.
She also said that all old canals in Dhaka would be re-excavated for surface water preservation and water management apart from excavating new ones.
The three-day Water Conference is featured with Delta Conference and meeting of High-level Water Panel representatives, to formulate future strategies to face challenges of safe water management, sewerage and sanitation.
Water resources minister Anisul Islam Mahmud said that availability of safe water was gradually becoming a challenging issue across the world.
He said that 83 representatives, including ministers and state ministers, from 23 countries were participating in the conference that began in Dhaka on Saturday. 
Earlier, a meeting of High-Level Water Panel representatives was held as part of the conference. The meeting discussed about formulating a roadmap to mitigate scarcity of safe drinking water and sanitation problems. 
Former Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology professor M Feroze Ahmed said that human growth and invasion were transforming natural ecosystem into manmade ecosystem with deforestation, monoculture and loss of biodiversity.
Ecological productivity is declining, said Feroze, now the Stamford University, vice-chancellor. 
Experts said that declaration and implementation of ecologically protected areas, restoration of damaged ecosystem and aligning of development with natural ecosystem were crucial. 
There are over 800 small and big rivers, and 57 transborder rivers in Bangladesh.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net