Benjamin Franklin says "When the well's dry, we know the worth of water." This seems very true for many urban areas and cities in the world. The mega city Dhaka is experiencing a severe water crisis in recent years. Water shortage becomes worse during the summer months. The groundwater table is diminishing at an alarming rate. Is it too late to achieve water sustainability in Dhaka? Groundwater Depletion Scenario in Dhaka At present, Dhaka has around 21 million people, which is projected to cross 32 million by 2035. Uncontrolled migration and rapid urbanisation are generating diverse problems, including the water crisis. Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) is failing to supply water to fulfil the demand of residents in half of the areas of the capital city of Bangladesh. Dhaka WASA's 2018-19 year's annual report shows that the daily water demand of Dhaka city is about 2.45 billion litres and 78% of this demand is met by groundwater extraction. Besides these, thousands of private deep tube wells are used in the city to extract water from the underground aquifers. Then surface water sources like rivers and lakes are used to fulfil the remaining 22% demand of water. Read more: Top Strategies to Enhance Fire Resilience in Dhaka City Most of The rivers and water bodies in and around the capital city including Turag, Dhaleswari, Buriganga, Tongi Khal, Balu, Shitalakshya, Bangshi River, etc are highly polluted by waste materials disposed of industrial as well as municipal sources. This situation aggravates during the dry seasons. At present, Dhaka WASA has four plants for treating water. But the amount of treated water is quite insufficient compared with the total demand of water. The long-term dependency on the underground aquifers has taken a toll on the city's groundwater table. According to 2030 Water Resources Group, Dhaka's groundwater table is declining at a rate of 3 metres every year. If the demand for water increases at the present rate, which is likely, then the projected yearly depletion rate of groundwater reserves can reach up to 5.1 metres by 2030. Currently, the average depth of Dhaka's groundwater table is about 78 metres, which may sink down to 132 metres in the next 10 to 12 years. Without appropriate preventive measures, the groundwater table may plunge to 100 to 150 metres by the year of 2050. Read more: What Can Dhaka Learn from the Smart City Singapore Multifarious Effects of Water Crisis The depletion of underground water levels can affect the residential, commercial and industrial zones of Dhaka city. The unregulated use of groundwater, may lead to severe shortfall in the supply of drinking water from underground aquifers.

The water pressure at James Brown’s home in Jackson was so low the faucets barely dripped. He couldn’t cook. He couldn’t bathe. But he still had to work. The 73-year-old tree-cutter hauled bags of ice into his truck at a gas station on his way to a job Wednesday after several days without water. “What can I do? I’m just a pawn in a chess game,” he said during one of multiple trips to and from the store. “All I’ve got to do is just try and live.” People waited in lines for water to drink, bathe, cook and flush toilets Wednesday in Mississippi’s capital. The city water system partially failed early this week after Pearl River flooding exacerbated longstanding problems in one of two water-treatment plants. President Joe Biden late Tuesday approved an emergency declaration for the state of Mississippi. On Wednesday, he called Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba to discuss response efforts, including support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. The mayor also said he had a separate telephone conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Beyond addressing the immediate crisis, Biden said he wants to provide federal support for the long-term effort to rebuild Jackson’s aging water infrastructure, which has been unreliable for years. Lumumba said Jackson’s water system is troubled by short staffing and “decades of deferred maintenance.” He said the influx of water from torrential rain changed the chemical composition needed for treatment, which slowed the process of pushing water out to customers. A city news release said the main water-treatment plant had “challenges with water chemistry” Wednesday, which led to a drop in output of water. That caused depletion of water tanks and a sharp decrease in water pressure. Even before the service disruption, Jackson’s 150,000 residents had been boiling their drinking water for the past month because officials said it could cause digestive problems. Brown said Wednesday that he’d stopped at the grocery store to buy four cases of water before picking up the ice. A lifelong Jackson resident, he said people there have been living without access to consistent water for years — even when there is pressure, residents often have to boil it to drink and cook. A cold snap in 2021 left tens of thousands of people without running water after pipes froze. Similar problems happened again early this year, on a smaller scale. “It will get right one day,” Brown said. “When, I have no idea.” Like many cities, Jackson faces water system problems it can’t afford to fix. Its tax base has eroded the past few decades as the population decreased — the result of mostly white flight to suburbs that began after public schools integrated in 1970. The city’s population is now more than 80% Black, with about 25% of its residents living in poverty. Lumumba said Tuesday that fixing Jackson’s water system could run to “quite possibly the billions of dollars.” Mississippi is receiving $75 million to address water problems as part of a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Jackson is receiving about $31 million through the EPA’s revolving loan funds for treatment and distribution system improvements. During a Wednesday news conference, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the EPA is deploying personnel to Jackson for an emergency assessment of the treatment plants and to streamline the delivery of repair equipment. FEMA has personnel at the state emergency operations center and is coordinating with the state emergency management team to identify needs, she said. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency for Jackson’s water system Tuesday. The state will try to help resolve problems by hiring contractors to work at the O.B. Curtis water treatment plant — the facility at the root of Jackson’s water woes. The plant was operating at diminished capacity with backup pumps after the main pumps failed “some time ago,” Reeves said. In a video posted to Twitter, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said an emergency rental pump had been installed Wednesday at the O.B. Curtis. Broken pumps at the plant resulted in decreased water pressure and some outages. In a news conference Wednesday, Lumumba said city officials expected water pressure to start increasing later in the evening. Bobbie Fairley, who has lived in Jackson her entire life, owns Magic Hands Hair design in south Jackson. The 59-year-old said she had to cancel five appointments Wednesday because she needs high water pressure to wash chemicals out of hair during treatments. She has had to purchase water to shampoo hair to try fit in whatever appointments she can. When clients aren’t coming in, she’s losing money. “That’s a big burden,” she said. “I can’t afford that. I can’t afford that at all.” Jackson State University had to bring in temporary restrooms for students and was waiting on the delivery of portable showers Wednesday, President Thomas Hudson said. Hudson said the city’s water issues have been an ongoing challenge for the historically Black university as it has worked to attract students. “It does make it difficult in terms of what we’re trying to do, our core mission, which is education,” Hudson said. He said the university is starting work on a plan for a standalone water supply system using some of the federal funding made available to historically Black colleges and universities. Shannon Wilson, whose daughter just started her sophomore year at Jackson State, said her daughter’s dorm regained some pressure, but the water coming out is brown. Her daughter left to stay with a friend off campus. But Wilson, who lives in St. Louis, can’t help but worry about her. “We are feeling helpless,” Wilson said. “Being over 500 miles away from Jackson, there is nothing I can do but worry.” Also read: Its largest lake is so dry, China digs deep to water crops

Amid soaring temperatures during the fasting month of Ramadan, residents of Nachol in the northern district have been struggling to get something as basic as potable water. The aggrieved residents claim that water scarcity is an annual occurance in Nachol, but the authorities concerned have so far failed to provide any relief. In fact, repeated complaints to local civic body officials have only fallen on deaf ears, they say.  Every morning, long queues of people can be seen before water tankers in several areas. The lucky ones get water, others are forced to return home empty-handed. Abdur Rakib, a resident of ward-8, said, “We get water supply once a day and that's not enough for drinking, cooking, bathing and other purposes. The municipality has hiked  taxes but failed to provide water to people.” “It feels like we are living in a desert amid Ramadan. We have been forced to use water from a nearby pond for cleaning of utensils for the past few days,” Shahnewaj Parvin, a housewife from the area, said. Local farmers fear that this water scarcity may snowball into a food production crisis. "Without water, we will not be able to water our crops. It's high time that the authorities woke up from slumber," said a farmer. When contacted, Abdul Malek, assistant engineer of Nachol Municipality, was quick to admit the water crisis. Read Also: Govt working to resolve water crisis: Minister

At the crack of dawn every day, 39-year-old Aleya Begum's  struggle for water begins. A resident of Sutarkhali village in Khulna's Dakop upazila, she wakes up around 5 am daily to the family rooster's sunrise song to walk for kilometres to fetch water for her husband and children. On a normal day, she makes two trips to the water source to bring home two pitchers of water. "After finishing the household chores by noon, I go out again in the afternoon to fetch water. This is my daily routine. Monsoon is the only season when I am spared of the toils and pains as the rains assure us of fresh water supply for 3-4 months," Aleya exclaims. Read Khulna city dwellers in water woes during Ramadan She is not alone. Almost all the women residents of Sutarkhali and nearby villages are forced to walk the extra mile every day to fetch water for their families. Not to mention that in villages across Bangladesh, the task of fetching water and doing other household chores falls to women. Aleya's village Sutarkhali has been facing an acute drinking water crisis since Cyclone Aila devastated the coastal areas of Satkhira, Khulna and Bagerhat districts in 2009. Large parts of the village remained submerged for nearly five years as salt water from the tidal surge that followed the cyclone contaminated all portable drinking water sources. Also read: Urgent response needed to tackle worsening water crisis: UN expert A reality check by UNB has revealed that not only Sutarkhali, scores of other villages in the coastal upazilas of Satkhira, Khulna and Bagerha districts -- such as Shyamnagar, Kaliganj, Tala, Debhata, Paikgachha, Asashuni, Batiaghata, Dumuria, Rampal, Chitalmari, Morelganj, Bagerhat and Sharankhola -- are also bearing the brunt of this water crisis. At least 50 lakh people in these upazilas are affected by the severe water scarcity, a rough estimate suggests. Sufia Begum, a resident of Kalabagi Jhulanta village in Dakop upazila, is another victim of the water crisis. "For several years now, drinking water has been brought from Sadar upazila in containers through trawlers," she said. Also read: Water crisis hits Malibagh residents hard Rudra Rani Biswas of Gunari village in Dakop upazila, also narrated her ordeal to UNB. "We are facing acute water scarcity. Getting water is more difficult these days than managing two square meals daily. It's high time that the authorities took stock of the situation to avert a catastrophe." Experts attribute the water crisis to climate change and say that it is only going to get bigger with each passing year.  So, what's the way out? Experts say that one possible solution is to conserve rainwater in large tanks during the monsoon. "Harvesting rainwater for future use is a practice common in many western countries too. It's one of the simplest and oldest methods of self-supply of water for households," said an expert. Read Also Govt working to resolve water crisis: Minister Other ways, according to them, could be to install purifiers to make saltwater potable and digging tube wells. "Though experiments have shown that deep tube well water is relatively less saline and arsenic-free, due to siltation and presence of rocks and high salinity, it's next to impossible to install them in all coastal areas," he said.

A UN human rights expert on Wednesday called for a robust and rapid global response to the world’s worsening water crisis, saying that climate change had become a “risk multiplier” - exacerbating pollution, scarcity and disasters.

The residents of Malibagh area of the capital under Zone-6 have been facing a severe water crisis for the last three days for lack of its supply by Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa).

Acute shortage of drinking water has added to the woes of Khulna city dwellers in Ramadan and coronavirus crisis when maintaining personal hygiene is vey important.