Sustainable development is way to follow development without causing a harm or damage to the environment. It can include anything from coal mining to groundwater exploitation. Many new mega cities like Bangkok and Dhaka where reports of subsidence, more clearly collapse or tiltation of buildings are reported, means a sustainable exploitation of groundwater is not followed.. Here comes the importance of this issue.
Some of the important fields that fall within the scope of sustainable developments are waste management, climatic change, desertification, biodiversity and a lot more. The list can grow longer with time. Increasing human activity in pursue of a better life, mainly for city life, will add more lines to the definition of sustainable development.
Groundwater exploitation is one such important field. A developing country like Bangladesh is heavily dependent on groundwater as increase of population causing further and further damage to the open resources like surface water in rivers and lakes. Groundwater serves many purposes like drinking water, for irrigation, for industrial purposes and tourism etc. Newspaper reports a decline of groundwater level of about 1 m every year. An alarmingly high rate which in near future can generate a huge depression in and around the center of Dhaka City. As water level drops, near surface portion of the subsurface gets filled with air making the capacity of surface less and less to bear the weight of highrise buildings and other infrastructures. Climatic change add one more minus sign to the scenario by disturbing the regular pattern of monsoon rain. The consequences go unnoticed in public eyes but ringing a bell that only nature can hear.
In such cases, the theory of sustainable development can be put into action by maintaining a strict regulation about groundwater exploitation. More use of surface water from surface water treatment plants can help reducing dependence on groundwater and let the water level rise again to its original position. Mega cities can adapt policies to encourage inhabitants to plant new plants. New parks can be established throughout the cities without disturbing city traffic. Municipal corporations can go even one step further by setting up public bathrooms for many floating city dwellers. Although at the beginning it looks like a venture but in the long run the benefit is enormous. First, it will save wasting water in substantial quantities and second, it will help earning revenues for city corporations while serving city inhabitants greatly.
Consciousness is urgently needed in these scenarios before they aggravate further. Government and non-government organizations can come forward with realistic measures. But public awareness is the first and foremost step in any sustainable development. Media can play a significant role and be a perfect guide as it is now reachable almost every possible ways. Before it`s too late, now is the right time to wake up and act towards a better sustainable 21st Century life!!
Khaled Mahmud Shams is at present doing his Ph.D in Salzburg University, Austria, on Phytoremediation of contaminated soil. He is the owner of http://www.shamskm.com
