URBAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND WATER CONSUMPTION PATTERN IN BANGLADESH: CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABLE WATER MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Water-centric problems and limitations are many. Although 70% of the planet is covered with water, only 3% of the water is potable. Among this 3%, 23% is contained in Lake Baikal, in Russian Siberia, which is usually frozen and therefore not usable even by people living in that area. 7 billion people have to share the other 77% of 3% (about 2.2%) of the Earth’s surface which is covered with water.
The point is that water, on which humans depend for life, is amazingly scarce. The demand for water is increasing at a terrific rate but no new water can be produced to meet it. Conservation and sharing of water supplies are our only options to survive. We do a poor job of this and thus billions of people have water problems.
Some 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to potable water, and a total of 2.7 billion people find water scarce for at least one month each year. Inadequate sanitation is a problem for 2.4 billion people—they are exposed to diseases, such as cholera and typhoid fever, and other water-borne illnesses. Two million people, mostly children, die each year from diarrheal diseases.
One-third of the world’s countries face moderate or extreme water problems. Almost all of them are located in North Africa, West or Central Asia and South Asia. High-level difficulties mean that, at some point in the year, these countries face severe difficulties in supplying potable water to all their people, all of the time.