World Water Day thought

'Wateraid' says universal access to water and sanitation needs to be “a central element” of the new post-2015 development framework, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by UN.

The international NGO’s Country Representative Dr Khairul Islam says Bangladesh’s poor had to burn their “hard-earned” calories each day to fetch drinking water which was never calculated in what water costs them.

He said city dwellers easily access water using electricity and pipes, but it remained a pipe dream in rural areas where people mostly women have to walk long distances, carry heavy loads, climb hills sometimes and pump tube-wells to fetch water.

“It involves human energy. They burn their hard-earn calories,” Dr Islam told bdnews24.com, “but policymakers never think about it”.

“It is ridiculous that people still think pipe water is for the city people only”.

With limited or no ability to treat contaminated water in villages, the rural populace suffer health risks, leading to scores of deaths.

The theme for this year's World Water Day (being observed on Saturday) is “Energy and Water”.

The UN in its latest World Water Development Report said water and energy were two “interdependent sectors”.

It says demand for fresh water and energy would continue to increase in coming decades to meet the needs of growing populations and economies, changing lifestyles and evolving consumption patterns, greatly amplifying existing pressures on limited natural resources and on ecosystems.

The report says about 90 percent of power generation is water-intensive.

It also shows that places where people do not have adequate access to water largely coincide with those where people have no electric power, and how closely the two sectors are inter-connected.

The collection, transport and treatment of water require energy, while water is used in energy production and for the extraction of fossil fuels.

Electric power plants which produce 80 percent of electricity worldwide use large quantities of water for the cooling process, the report finds.

The UN report estimates 786 million people globally with no access to a safe and clean source of water while 2.5 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation.

Some 1.3 billion people are not connected to an electric power grid and close to 2.6 billion use solid fuel—mainly biomass—to cook.

Bangladesh has achieved the 2015 MDG target for water ahead of schedule, but the Unicef-WHO report says 26 million people lack access to safe water in the country.

Dr Islam of Wateraid said ‘inequities' of this kind have long persisted in Bangladesh.

“In cities electricity pumps water into reservoirs but in rural areas women have to pump tube-well to fetch water.”

Locals fetch potable water from a faraway well and do other washing at the pond on Bishwa Road crossing of Narayanganj. Photo: asaduzzaman pramanik/ bdnews24.com

“We pay for water (in city), but do not spend any calories for that. But if we estimate the energy used by rural folks to fetch water, it works out costlier for them than what people pay in cities,” he said.

“It’s a huge inequality and also a violation of human rights as UN recognised access to water as a key right.”

The UN also says that the cost of water must not exceed 5 percent of a family income. Dr Islam says in real terms, village folks in Bangladesh end up spending more than that to access water.

Wateraid on the eve of the Water Day in a report found contrasts in terms of giving aid in water and sanitation sector.

It says “the greatest volume of aid rarely goes to the places where there is the greatest need”.

Jordan, Mauritius and Montenegro all have access levels above 90 percent to both water and sanitation, yet they receive $855, $588 and $256 respectively each year for each person.

Overcrowding forces locals to set up a toilet beside the pond at Bishwa Road crossing of Narayanganj. Photo: asaduzzaman pramanik/ bdnews24.com

Conversely, many least developed countries receive minimal amounts of support, despite their fragility and high levels of need.

Madagascar and Somalia receive less than $1 each year per person despite most of them suffering lack of water or sanitation.

In fact, middle income economies dominate the list, and in 2010 and 2011 Bangladesh and Kenya were the only low income economies to feature in the top ten aid recipients.

“This imbalance (giving aid globally) widens existing inequalities rather than reducing them,” Dr Islam said.

He said their report also accused donors for failing to deliver on their promise.