Solving drinking water crisis in Bangladesh
Sayed Javed Ahmad
Our Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) probably did not ponder on the possibility of converting the sea water into drinkable water for mass use. We are fortunately located next to an ocean with all the water we could possibly use available at our disposal. Many countries in the Middle East are using this method to solve their drinking or sweet water crisis, we could do the same.
On my online search I also bumped into a paper entitled "Feasibility study of renewable energy powered seawater desalination technology using natural vacuum technique" that could give us some clue on how we could harness the solar power to desalinate the sea water for drinking and daily use. Similarly, found another discussion site where discussion topic is "Simple, cheap device for making sea-water drinkable and no-one wants it?" Today's Daily Star has reported today a news "Battery-power desalination device offers hope to parched areas" that Bangladesh could explore for implementation.
While looking into these options we also need to make diplomatic efforts at the United Nations (UN) to get India to sit for a negotiation for international river water sharing with Bangladesh. We need the waters flowing in our rivers to keep our lands fertile and protect them from dryness to prevent them from turning into deserts. This is a matter of great importance as we may find ourselves in a sudden food shortage for not having fertile cultivatable lands with enough water to support our agriculture and fisheries.
We need to take the matter of depletion of our underground water resources seriously before it causes higher risk for an earthquake due to emptiness underground that could swallow our high rise cities burying the citizens alive. We could easily tap into the refined and desalinated water resource to solve our growing water shortage crisis as well as re-fill the underground hollow with water again thus reducing the quake disaster risks.
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