Rights activists at a press conference in the Khulna city on Saturday assert their position against the Khulna Water Supply and Sewerage Authority’s decision to impose registration fees and charges on the deep tube-well users from this month.
They demanded maximum use of surface water and the lowest use of underground water in the city.
They were addressing the press conference at the office of An Organisation for Socio-Economic Develop-ment on Manik Saha Road in the city.
The Water Rights Committee, the An Organisation for Socio-Econo-mic Development and the Youth Forum on Water Justice organised the programme.
The activists urged the KWASA to scrap its decision immediately and to use surface water to build up an environment friendly water management system as per declaration of the KWASA.
They asked the KWASA to take any decision on water management through exchanging views with the stakeholders.
They demanded impose of a ban on pumping groundwater and complained that the new ordinance to take approval fees from the groundwater users meant that the KWASA was going to approve the use of groundwater officially.
They said that the underground water level faced serious risk and underground water in 10 out of 31 wards in the city had become unsuitable due to much salinity and presence of harmful chemicals.
They also complained that the number of ponds and canals in the city decreased over years as the city corporation failed to monitor those.
Khulna University professor Dilip Kumar Datta, Water Rights Committee convener Humayun Kabir Boby, Khulna Press Club general secretary Md Saheb Ali and Youth Forum on Water Justice general secretary Abir Ahammad Talukder addressed the conference.
-With New Age input
