Water Issues in Bangladesh
By: Jamie Brooks, Dana Broadus, Christian Vega
Statistics
There is an estimated amount of 30-35 million people in Bangladesh.
90% of people in Bangladesh have access to water.
40% of that 90% have proper sanitation in their water.
That leaves 60% of Bengalis to drink unsafe water.
Only 7% of the land in Bangladesh creates watersheds for the "Great Rivers."
Problems
Bangladesh has three "Great Rivers" (Brahmaputra, Meghno, Ganges ) that run through it but the rivers flow through China and India first and the Chinese and Indians use most of the drinkable water before it gets to Bangladesh. Bangladesh has an overflow of water in the warmer seasons because of the monsoons and has drought in the colder seasons. The man made Farraka Barrage decreases the flow in the Ganges making the salinity rise. The salinity also rise because of the high number of shrimp farms and climate change that causes rising sea levels. 90% of Bengalis use groundwater as a resource but the increase of salinity affects the soil and quality of the groundwater. Out of the little water they have to drink 80% of it is used in agriculture. In general the issues are the increasing salinity and the climate change.
Solutions
In Bangladesh there could be some solutions to the water crisis. Such as reinvigorate arsenic politics that have been going on since the 1990's or they can change the maximum exposure to the arsenic to 10 micrograms.