DHAKA: The World Water Day is being observed significantly in home and abroad on Saturday. This time the theme is “Water and Energy.”
Every year the day is celebrated worldwide concerning freshwater with great consequence.
Bangladesh National Committee of ICID (BANCID) in association with the Water Resource Ministry is going to organize a seminar on `Water and energy` in the international conference room of CIRDAP on the day.
State Minister for Water Resources Mohammad Nazrul Islam, Bir Protik and Water Resource Secretary Dr Jafar Ahmed Khan are likely to attend the seminar, an official release said.
Water experts, member of civil society, representatives of different donor agencies, among others, are expected to attend the seminar.
Department of Public Health Engineering, the World Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies and NGO Forum for Public Health are observeing the World Water Day with due significance.
The day was introduced at the conference on environment and development of United Nation (UN) in Brazil in 1992. The very next year general assembly of UN declared March 22 as World Water Day.
Objectives of World Water Day in 2014 are raising awareness of the inter-linkages between water and energy, contributing to a policy dialogue that focuses on the broad range of issues related to the nexus of water and energy, demonstrating through case studies, to decision makers in the energy sector and the water domain that integrated approaches and solutions to water-energy issues can achieve greater economic and social impacts.
Moreover, identifying policy formulation and capacity development issues in which the UN system, in particular UN-Water and UN-Energy, can offer significant contributions. Identifying key stakeholders in the water-energy nexus and actively engaging them in further developing the water-energy linkages
Another objective is to contribute as relevant to the post-2015 discussions in relation to the water-energy nexus.
Despite of being a river irritated country the major source of our water is the neighbouring country. Around 90 percent of the total demand comes from India.
According to a strategy of 2008, around 2.97 percent of total water is used in drinking purpose, 88 percent for agriculture, 10 percent for domestic usage and two percent remains reserve in our country.
Within 2050 the demand for fresh water and energy would continue to increase in coming decades to meet the needs of growing populations and economies, changing lifestyles and evolving consumption patterns, greatly amplifying existing pressures on limited natural resources and on ecosystems.
BDST: 1148 HRS, MAR 22, 2014
