Hovedstaden i Bangladesh er verdens hurtigst voksende storby – og det siger ikke så lidt – men vandforsyningen har slet ikke kunnet følge med og stadig flere i Dhaka (Dacca) plages af diarre og andre vandbårne sygdomme.
DHAKA, 23 April 2012 (IRIN): The Bangladesh Government must do more to address the outstanding water needs of the capital, Dhaka, as experts warn that unless efforts are stepped up, things will worsen.
The city requires 2,2 billion litres a day, but can only produce 1,9 to 2 billion, the city’s Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) reported.
“Stronger action is needed now. Government steps in addressing this problem to date have been inadequate,” Khairul Islam, country representative of NGO WaterAid in Bangladesh, told IRIN.
The official population of Dhaka is 12,8 million but unofficial estimates put the actual figure at closer to 15 million, including some 3,4 million living in slums.
Another 300.000 to 400.000 people migrate to the city each year, which has witnessed a four-fold increase in its population in the last 25 years.
According to the World Bank, the mega-city in this South asian country has the highest population growth in the world.
Much of Dhaka’s water problem centres on its over-dependence on ground water, and water specialists say the city needs to increase its usage of surface water sources like ponds, rivers and canals.
The World Bank notes that Dhaka-WASA (DWASA) obtains most of its water from overexploited aquifers (underjordiske reservoirer).
Power outages (strømudfald) and a drop in the water table during the annual dry season from March to May mean DWASA is unable to extract enough water to meet demand.
Shortages in early April were so severe in some parts of the city that many did not get water for days, while others complained that it was undrinkable. Scores of people protested.
Some 700 patients are currently being treated for diarrhoea a day against a normal average of 250 to 300 per day, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research Bangladesh, reported on 23 April.
Feroze Ahmed, former professor at BUET and a water expert, agrees that the city’s now annual water woes are largely the result of over-dependency on ground water. “Initiatives to cut the dependency and increase use of surface water should have been taken much earlier,” he said.
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