Bangladesh NGO Forum
Observes the World Water Day
At the forty-seventh session in 1992 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating March 22 as the World Water Day. This resolution is a milestone in the effort of ensuring safe water supply for all people on the earth. Being the apex networking organization of the NGOs and CBOs working in the WatSan sector, NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply & Sanitation observed this day in Bangladesh in line with the global theme of this year's Water Day "Everyone Lives Downstream". To mark this Day a National Seminar was organized by NGO Forum at Dhaka on "Arsenic in Groundwater: Searching for Alternatives to Rural Water Supply".
The basic objectives of the Seminar were to discuss the extent of the current threat of arsenic in groundwater causing a new threat in water supply sector and severe health injury to people, search for suitable alternatives to Rural Water Supply to mitigate the problem, consolidate recommendations on this issue both on technical interventions and effective policy in the national level.
The report of the seminar (15KB) can be downloaded in PDF format.
Regional Symposiums
NGO Forum Regional Offices organized Symposiums at its 12 Regions to mark the World Water Day 1999. The title of the symposium was "Arsenic in Groundwater: Searching for Alternatives to Rural Water Supply" in line with the global theme for this year's World Water Day "Everyone Lives Downstream". The twelve Regions where the Symposiums were organized are, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Comilla, Sylhet, Chittagong, Khulna, Jessore, Barisal, Bogra, Rangpur, Rajshahi and Faridpur. Delegations from Govt. sector, donor agencies, UN bodies, NGO sector, mass media and local opinion leaders were present in the symposiums. The Symposiums consisted of programmes like Inaugural Session, , Rally, Exhibition, Video Film Show and Cultural Show.
Presentations were made on different actions and alternatives to arsenic mitigation in the Symposiums. The speakers explained the extent of the threat of arsenic, the ways to combat the problem, awareness building approach, some alternate technologies for supply of arsenic free safe water such as Rain-Water Harvesting, Pond Sand Filter, three pitcher filters, alum coagulation method and others. The open discussion session was a lively one which generated important information for the participants. After this session the participants enjoyed watching different alternative technologies in the exhibition, video film show and cultural programme.