There is no doubt that- our nation is progressing. Our GDP is going up, our Average income is going up, our economy is growing and our live style is improving. Our improved lifestyle is creating even more demand on our resources. We are using them more rapidly then ever before. As a result we are running out of these resources even more rapidly. Are we aware of this?
I remember, there was no scarcity of water in our area even 3/4 years back. Now, I am getting used to No-Water condition as literally the water supply has gone dramatically down. There are two main reasons for this. Number 1 is the Water Layer – which has gone so down that the water pumps can hardly pull out water from the deep. The second reason is the Electricity problem – which it self is a problem and will be discussed in the later part of this article. Again we are responsible for both the reasons. Our ever growing demand is forcing the water authority to pump even more water, on the other hand we are reducing the natural water basin which lets the water from the surface to go down to fill up the water that we are consuming by pumping up. The city is getting covered by the bitumen surfaces and concrete layers.
Discussing the 2nd reason of water crisis will bring up even another more important problem that are facing – yes I meant “Electricity Problem”. In last few years a big number of new electricity users were introduced whereas the total production of electricity has gone down. I think there are two major reasons for Electricity problem. The first one was the lack of future vision and no-maintenance, because of which no new electricity generation was added, moreover it has gone down due to power stations going down due to lack of overhauling services. The second reason is that the resources upon which Electricity production depends, are in scarce situation itself. Examples are – Water level drop in Kaptai lake which is the largest hydroelectric power plant in Bangladesh, the supply shortages of Natural gas – using which many of the power station run. The water level drop can be identified as natural disaster, but the gas problem is again ignited by the misuse of it by us. We burn more than 10 cubic meter gas for our car at a cost of only 160-170 taka every day- which is enough for cooking burner to run for more than a month. Just imagine how quickly we are burning our resources. The rate at which we are burning our natural gas will cause running out of it within less than a decade. What are we going to do then? No Gas means, no fertilizer – no Electricity. We can understand what no fertilizer means, but what about no electricity? No electricity means, no irrigation- no water – no industrialization – no development. Are we really aware of the future we are heading?
We can’t change our fate overnight but we can try atleast. We have to be very careful about using our resources and should try all possible ways to save as much as we can. If we are not awakened soon, this dreadful situation will welcome the ultimate nightmare for us.
BaKeDCaKeD
1 am, 26th April 2009.
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