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April
13, 2000
Pabna,
Apr 12 (UNB) – A large number of people in the rural areas of the
district using canal and pond waters have been affected by diarrhea
and other intestinal diseases.
Health
Department and Hospital sources admitted paucity of safe drinking
water in the district and two children died of diarrhea in Vangura and
Faridpur recently. More than 5,000 people were afflicted by water
borne diseases during last three months till March.
The
Civil Surgeon’s Office denied any death from diarrhea and said two
babies died of intestinal disease.
Officials
said government and non-government organizations have installed
1,30,264 tube-wells. Of these, 885 tube-wells of Public Health &
Engineering Department and 5,000 of NGOs went out of order in the
absence of spares.
A
recent survey conducted by UNICEF showed that 99 per cent people of
the district use to drink tube-well water round the year except in the
dry season when the ground water level goes down.
Fifty
percent of the people are to drink pond and canal waters during
March-May as they could not pump out water from tube-wells due to the
fall of water level.
Executive
Director of PHED told UNB that water level fell sharply this year due
to inadequate rainfall, the low flow of water in river Ganges and its
tributaries dried up during the period.
He
said water level fell by 7-11 meters last year but it dropped by 10-16
meters this year making 80 percent of the hand operated tube-wells
went inoperative and the remaining 20 percent could pump out only 25
percent of capacity.
Official
sources said about 449 tube-wells and 425 tara pumps out of 14,518
tube-wells and 8,479 tara pumps of PHED remained inoperative since
long and could not be repaired due to financial constraints.
A
PHED official said paucity of drinking water is likely to take a
serious turn if there is no adequate rains during the current month.
The problem can be minimized by installing tara pumps. Installation of
100 such pumps is in progress.
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