Salinity increases in groundwater

The work for identifying the reasons behind increase of salinity in groundwater is going on in full swing across the country.
The government launched the "Forecasting saline water intrusion, water quality and waterlogging programme" in February last year.
According to the project profile, 150 `salinity test tubewells' will be installed in the coastal belts of Chittagong at a cost of Tk 3 crore.
Eighty tubewells of such kind have already been sunk and 20 more will be installed by June this year, the sources said.
Abdul Hai, assistant engineer of Minor Irrigation Information Service Wing of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC), said such kind of tubewells have been installed in Khulna, Satkhira, Madaripur, Shariatpur, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Noakhali, Lakkhipur, Chandpur, Gopalganj, Barisal, Barguna, Patuakhali, Bhola, Jhalakathi, Pirojpur, Jhenidah, Magura, Rajbari, Bagerhat, Narail and Jessore.
BADC sources said such tubewells would be sunk maintaining a distance of 50 kilometers as per opinions of experts across the country, excluding the hilly areas, and the number of such tubewells might be increased to 500 to reap benefits.
Project Officer of "Forecasting saline water intrusion, water quality and waterlogging programme" and Superintendent Engineer of BADC Iftekhar Alam said the project would help identify the sources of salinity in the ground, its impact and remedy.
He said it would also help take effective steps to save the country from the bad effects of climate change -- salinity.
"The second phase of identifying the sources of saline water will start right after we get equipment from abroad and the project is expected to be completed by December next," Iftekhar said.
"We must take preventative measures to cope with the bad effects of climate change according to geological technical guidelines so that we can get rid of salinity," he said, adding that the tubewells of Tala, Debhata and Kaliganj of Satkhira are marked with huge presence of salinity.
Iftekhar said presently the water level at Dhaka city is 140 feet under the sea level and the water level in and around Dhaka is also gradually dropping.
Abdul Huq, assistant professor of Geography and Environmental Studies Department at Chittagong University, said the reserve of the groundwater is not fulfilled due to shortfall of rain and it results in decrease of water level and increase of saline water.
However, he thought that excessive use of groundwater in daily life is also responsible for this decrease.
Crop production specialist of Agriculture Extension Department Abdul Mannan said about 11,000 hectares of land remained out of cultivation during this Boro season owing to sharp rise of salinity in the Karnaphuli river water.