Around one lakh people living in 80 villages in Alikadam and Naikhongchhari upazilas out of seven upazilas in Bandarban district are passing days in a severe water crisis. The people of these areas used to collect water from the nearby hilly streams locally known as “Jhiris”. Many of these Jhiris have already dried up, while the others are on the verge of drying. Experts and environmentalists have blamed illegal extraction of stones and felling of trees as the main reasons behind the drying up of the streams of the hilly areas.
As the water sources almost diminish during the dry season, men and women of the hilly region have to go in search of water for their families from early morning. There are 1,437 villages in seven upazilas of Bandarban district. The water crisis prevails in almost all the villages, officials of the district said. As boulders and sand from the water bodies have been extracted and hills are being cleared of forest for the development projects, the springs and streams are drying up. The residents of the two upazilas have to go a few kilometres away to collect water. When one stream dried, people moved to another nearby one to have a sustainable source of water. Locals even said they have to go all the way up to a Jhiri around two kilometres away on a hilltop when their nearby Jhiri is exhausted. They claimed that they did not get any assistance from the government or local representatives.
Meanwhile, the Bandarban Civil Surgeon said the villagers do not get even sufficient water for bathing, washing clothes and sanitation. Many of them have fallen sick for lack of pure drinking water. People are now getting infected with different types of waterborne diseases. In this context, Bandarban deputy commissioner said the district administration is conducting mobile court drives to stop extraction of stone and tree felling to put an end to the crisis. The UNOs of the two upazilas said deep tube wells are currently being installed and water purifying tablets distributed among the people. It seems like they are joking with residents as to what they will do with the tablets.
We demand that the government must take pragmatic steps though conserving the natural forests as well as preventing extraction of stones and sand from the water bodies to stop the drying up of the springs and streams of the hilly areas.
