It is reported that there are around 1500-2000 textile dyeing and washing units, and a few hundred are in the pipeline. All of these industries are extracting ground water and releasing it to the surface water directly, without treatment. Only a few of them have effluent treatment plants (ETP), but they are operating partially or are out of order. As a result, surface water bodies are being contaminated day by day, and the ground water table is being depleted.

There are around 12-13 million people living in Dhaka city. The quantity of potable water supplied is around 47-48 million gallons per day, which covers only 70-75 percent of the population. Only 40 percent of the above is being supplied from surface water treatment plants, and the rest from different deep bore-wells located in different parts of the city. The entire population of the country (around 145 million), along with the capital city dwellers not covered by a reliable potable water supply network, use ground water as the only source of potable water.

There have been more or less 600-700 textile dyeing and washing industries set up around Dhaka, at Narayanganj, Tejgaon, Savar, Tongi and Gazipur area within the last few years, and some more are in pipeline. They are extracting approximately 25-30 million gallons of water everyday in and around Dhaka city; this is almost the same quantity being supplied to the city. The GDP contribution from the textile sector rose up to 70 percent in 2005-2006. Being a poverty driven country, we should consider both the prosperity of the textile sector as well as the water source and water quality of the country.

Scarcity of water is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. In 2005-2006, there were several demonstrations and protests due to scarcity of potable water. The continuous drawing of ground water is responsible for the depletion. The situation is deteriorating day by day due to the increase in textile and other water consuming industries, and also because of population growth. Those industries are discharging their untreated waste water into the natural streams. So, the surface water body is now vulnerable, aquatic life is endangered and users are facing serious health problems due to contamination by hazardous chemicals from those industries.

I tried many times to draw the attention of the regulating authority to impose a limitation on ground water use by any commercial user. At this moment we don't have any regulation on ground water use. Ground water is a natural resource. All natural resources of the country are owned by state and the people have the right to use them, but in a limited manner. Every country has it's own regulations on ground water, except Bangladesh.

It is not an unlimited resource, and continuous lowering of groundwater table day by day could cause geological imbalance and meteorological change in the country. All commercial users of ground water should be brought under metering control system, where payment would be exempted for minimum use. To do this we could introduce a separate act, say "Ground Water Control Act" as soon possible.

The present caretaker government has recently taken action to bring all textile mills under legislation, and asked them to install ETP within six months. It is a historic step by the present govt., indeed, like their other initiatives, but it should be better planned. We did a study on this sector in 2004-2005, with the help of a Danish company, to identify the problems in wastewater treatment. We found a few major problems which might hinder the initiatives of the entrepreneurs to install ETP. They are: lack of space, high cost involved, long time taken for installation, lower technical sophistication, high operation cost, poor after-sales service, technically deficient operators etc.

Setting up an ETP is a multidisciplinary, costly and time consuming project, where as most of the service providers in our country are not qualified up to the required level. Most of them are working as local agents of the parent supplier company, without having sufficient infrastructure or experience. Local entrepreneurship for manufacturing ETP has not yet been developed in the country. So, if all the textile dyeing and washing plants decide to install ETP, a supplier gap will be created, which will help some middlemen. Ultimately, the clients will be cheated, and substantial amount of foreign currency will be drained out of the country through the import of poor quality ETPs.

On the other hand, the textile plant owners are not technically sound enough to negotiate an ETP order with the suppliers. To overcome this, the present government should have an integrated plan with a practically viable timeframe, and form a technical committee consisting of relevant experts in ETP who will suggest a sustainable wastewater treatment option, since installing ETP will not be the only solution to water pollution control, it will also relate to ground water use.

It is evident that within 3-4 years all textile, and other major water consuming industries would need to recycle their wastewater for primary use, since they won't get water from the bore well. So they should install an ETP which could be modified easily for the primary use of water in future. That is why a cost effective, small, technically sophisticated ETP, with a provision for future recycling options, should be the only solution for the textile and other water polluting industries.

As I mentioned earlier, there are more than 1500-1600 textile dyeing and washing units in operation without ETP. The consumption of water in textile dyeing and washing process is too high, and an appropriate, cost effective recycling method could be an option for reducing the pollution level and water drawing rate. Arsenic is another threat to human life, which arises due to the use of ground water nowadays.

To get rid of these problems, introduction of easy to use, cost effective and small surface water treatment plants could be another option for reducing the use of ground water as the main source of potable water. As a matter of fact, Bangladesh is a tropical monsoon country, and there is abundant surface water throughout the country during the monsoon, when we could introduce rain water harvesting as well. On the other hand, surface water treatment is easy, and would also be a source of water for the textile and other water polluting industries.

The government has adopted an environment conservation act, and a court to punish the polluters, but this is not sufficient to protect the surface and ground water of the country. Separate acts, like "ground water protection act" and "surface water protection act" should be introduced as soon as possible for the efficient control of those.

In the United Kingdom, all natural water and ground water is called "controlled water," and it is illegal to pump out, or mix anything to, controlled water without having extraction permission or discharge consent. They control it under "Control Water Directives" which is being followed by all EU countries. In addition to that, England has separate "Surface Water Act", "Ground Water Act," "Dangerous Substances Act," "Hazardous Material Handling and Storage Act" which control their surface and ground water. So, to protect the natural environment and endangered aquatic life, to condition lowering of ground water table, and to ensure a reliable potable water supply to the nation, finding an appropriate, sustainable and cost effective solution is vital for Bangladesh.

Nasir Uddin Khan, PhD, is a Waste Management Specialist.