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Save the last drops
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| Mirza Shafi |
Wed, Jan 23, 2008
The Daily Star
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>"A healthy mind in a healthy body is a thing to pray for," said the great Roman satirist, Juvennal, about 2000 years ago. And to be healthy we must get, among other things, enough water to cater for the body's needs; and if the water is not sufficient and potable, we face health problems, diseases, and finally damage to the body's mechanisms.
We have water scarcity in the Sidr affected areas, yet we failed to ensure water stocks before the cyclone hit the southern parts of the country. That was our failure when seen from disaster management point of view, especially when potable water has not reached to even half of our population.
Water is a natural resource and, therefore, is considered a national wealth. Our constitution not only gives us the right to live, but also the right to clean environment and hence cleans water. This right to clean water entitles the people to use available water in their domains, and a right for demanding water under a government managed system -- both during normal and emergency situations.
Present availability of water
Presently, large cities like Dhaka and Chittagong get government managed water through the Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), and other urban centers and many villages are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE). The latter has shallow tubewell projects in rural areas. The requirements of the city dwellers are presently met to some extent -- about 50% in Dhaka -- through water pumped out of underground aquifers. Dhaka Wasa is yet to commission its project for collection of water from the rivers.
Water scarcity is going to remain a permanent feature of our water management. We have a general mistrust of banks, insurance companies and other service-oriented organisations, as they are only "too keen to give their products and services," but have lame excuses when things go wrong, and Wasa, too, has developed the same tendency; no amount of threat or persuasion is likely to help the general public, and our miseries will remain same in the near future.
Let us see the situation from other angles. Throughout the world the fresh water situation is getting worse day-by-day, and in the last 30 years water has become a rare commodity.
The dismal state of fresh water supply to the growing multitude could turn into a world-wide crisis, especially because of global warming, ozone depletion, and other environmental threats. Yet, the very notion of a global water shortage seems far fetched when 70% of the earth's surface is covered by water.
But it should be kept in mind that 98% of that water is salty, and unfit for drinking or agriculture. Desalinisation is technically possible but far too expensive to be extensively used anywhere except in an ultra-rich, sparsely populated country like Saudi Arabia, or in affluent cities in the US. Most of the planet's fresh water is locked up in the polar ice-caps or stored in the underground aquifers; only .014% is readily available in lakes, rivers and streams.
However, that precious supply is distributed most unevenly. Bangladesh is lucky to be in an area where water could be said to be available in plenty. Presently, countries are poised to go to war over oil; the cause of future-armed conflicts could be water. Jordan and Israel, Egypt and Ethiopia, as well as India and Bangladesh have serious disputes over water supplies through common rivers, while Turkey has the power to curtail the water flowing into Iraq through the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Whatever the consequences for human beings, water shortage has an even greater effect on other living things. Birds, fish and other countless creatures are crowded out, marooned, or poisoned as industries and agriculture reroute their wastes to rivers, dry up wetlands, and destroy the ecosystem. The notion that engineering could produce water where and when it was needed is mistaken, and there is a limit to mankind's ability to move water from one place to another without seriously disrupting the natural balance.
Therefore, considering the overall water situation -- especially in our region -- we in Bangladesh must save the last drop. And, in saving this precious national resource, we must think rationally, evolve a national water policy, and try to implement the projects out of our own resources or with minimal outside assistance.
Bottled water
Water is the essence of life and, yet, when it comes to bottled water we hardly ensure its purity -- we take it for granted that bottled water is purified, tasteless and colourless, and hygienically free of bacteria. With all sorts of manufacturers here in Bangladesh, it is not enough to be a tea tester or a wine snob -- we must also be aqua experts. Water is no more than a stuff that falls from the sky, rushes down the rivers or fill the ponds. We have to buy the same, be it from Wasa or in bottles. Therefore, potable water is free no more.
In cities like New York, Paris, Rome etc., water is no more just water anymore. With more than 700 brands of bottled water, known as eau de bouteille, drinking of water has become a fashion. In Europe, at least 80% of the French and Italians take water and, like in America, the sale is growing by about 10% faster than any beverage. Some day in the future, market analysts expect that bottled water will overtake coffee to become the second most consumed beverage after soft drinks.
Why people are attracted to bottled water? Because it is safe; is kilojoule-free, whereas a 150 milliliter glass of wine has 400 kilojoules of calories; when "enhanced" it offers such nutritive trimmings as calcium, soy, vitamins, vegetable extracts (in a product called Water Salad) ginkgo biloba and Echinacea; and a high-octane blend of potassium, calcium and magnesium (called Glaceau Smart water) is supposed to provide the fountain of youth.
The purest water in the world is the Norwegian artesian water, "Voss," taken from a virgin aquifer and bottled before it gets sullied by exposure to the air. The water "Feji" comes from rain that fell 450 years ago on the pristine South Pacific islands. King Island's "Cloud Juice" guarantees 4875 drops of Tasmanian rainwater per 375 mililitre bottle, and "Lrisia" is melted Italian snow water that seeps up through volcanic cracks.
"Chatledon," one of the oldest and most exclusive water from a village in Auvergne, is coveted as it has no taste. The latest in America is "Iceberg" water, which is harvested from huge icebergs, and "Bergy Bits" from water off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
We once went to Margazar, Swat State, where the water coming down from an aquifer on a hill was so pure and tasteless that we had to consume nearly double the normal meal each time we drank the water.
And what about our tap water! We know that New York city's municipal water was dubbed the champagne of tap water and, till recently, was considered the best in the world in terms of taste and purity. In England, Thames River water came out to be the best among several leading brands of bottled water that were 400 times more expensive.
We, in Dhaka, hardly question the quality of any bottled water produced here. It is now a fashion to be seen with a bottle of "Mum," or any other brand, in public. We have no authority to check taste or control production of bottled water and, therefore, every other day we read in the newspapers of unscrupulous people changing the name of the brand -- God knows what we are drinking!
A restaurant's typical markup on wine is 100 to 150%, whereas on bottled water it is often 300 to 500%. But since water is much cheaper than wine, and many of the fancier brands are not available here, there is no protest. As a result, the hoteliers are turning up the pressure to sell bottled water of other brands and make extra money.
Some of the most shameless tactics they use include placing attractive bottles on the tables for visual sell, listing brands on the menu without prices, and serving bottled water without asking the diners.
In Bangladesh, as far as the information goes, there are a few brands -- Aqua, Trisna, Duncan, Everest, Polarise, Mum -- that claim to have their own deep tube-wells and/or ozonising plants, yet none is producing mineral water. These are costly, and the so-called posh restaurants charge up to Tk. 20.00 per bottle of 10 ml.
Every day, the public makes numerous complaints about the water supplied by Wasa and/or DPHE; in fact, the complaints are as many as the varieties of contamination. Therefore, we can safely use the saying we hear very often, "Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink," be it in the Sidr hit areas or in other parts of Bangladesh.
Surah Waqu'a, or The Inevitable Event (68-70), says, "...were it our will we could make it salt (unpalatable), then why do ye not give thanks?"
Colonel Mirza Shafi is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.
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