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Improve water resources management

Speakers tell seminar

Staff Correspondent
Speakers at a seminar yesterday stressed the need to improve water resources management in order to resolve water crisis in the country.
Access to safe water is a basic human nght, they said and called for effective measures to reclaim water bodies, combat water pollution and improve sanitation system.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (Bapa) and Nagorik Uddyog jointly organised the seminar on Water resources management in Bangladesh: Problems and prospects' at Dhaka Reporters' Unity auditorium to mark theWorld Water Day
Presiding over the seminar, Bapa President Prof Muzaffer Ahmed said water security is directly linked to food security.
Water crisis would worsen in the future, he said, adding that reclaiming water bodies and harvesting rainwater can help ensure supply of useable waler.
I Ie also called for steps to combat water pollution and introduce waterrecyclingsystem.
Stressing the need for proper sanitation system, Prof Muzaffer said about 40 percent of people are suffering from kidney diseases due to poor sanitation.
He also called for using indigenous knowledge to solve various problems.
Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, president of Bangladesh Economic Association, said the supply of use-able water has been decreasing day by day mainly due to pollution.
He said a water policy has been formulated in 1999, which is better than those of many countries, but the policy is yet to be implemented.
"It is matter of regret that we for-
mulate policy and plans and appoint foreign experts to conduct study, but we do not implement them," he said.
He also called for taking steps to improve the sanitation system in rural areas.
Engineer Emaduddin Ahmed, executive director of Institute ofWatcr Modelling, said various types of environmental hazards such as waterlogging, shortage of safe water and water contamination have been increasing with the rise of urbanisation.
Such problems can be tackled effectively if the government departments work in a coordinated and accountable way, he said.
I le also suggested initiating panic -ipatory projects, building a Ganges barrage within 10 years and incorporating the integrated water resource management issue in school curriculum.
Dr M Feroze Ahmed of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) presented a keynote paper while engineer Mashrur-Ul-Haaue Siddique, former member-director ofWater Development Board. ;»^fazammei Hossain, deputy editor of ; Ohe daily SomokaL and Zakir Hossain, * chief executive of Nagorik Uddyog, also spoke.