Almost half of the country's wetlands have already disappeared and most of the domestic sewage and major portion of the industrial wastewater are being discharged into natural environment without treatment, according to experts.
They said in the near future, the water of Shitalakhya river, the only usable surface water available for Dhaka, will also become unusable.
With the present scenario in view, the World Water Day is going to be observed today (March 22) in Bangladesh as elsewhere in the globe.
The theme for World Water Day 2018 is 'Nature for Water'.
Different government, non-government, social and rights organisations have chalked out programmes to observe the day.
On the occasion of the World Water Day, a national seminar titled 'Exploring Nature-based Solutions to Water Challenges in Bangladesh' was held on Wednesday at the PKSF Bhaban, with a call for protecting the environment for the sake of sustaining water sources.
Environment & Forest Minister Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud was present at the seminar as the chief guest with Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) Chairman Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad in the chair, said a press release.
Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering Division at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) & Director of the ITN-BUET presented the Key-note paper at the seminar.
Speakers and experts at the seminar laid emphasis on adopting an integrated eco-friendly technological solution to country's development projects to help cope with domestic environmental challenges.
Echoing them, Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud said there is a need for integrated efforts for mitigating such challenges.
He, however, also said the experts along with the media are only focusing on the particular problem, rather than taking the bigger scenario into account.
In his speech, Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad stressed the need for identifying water management system that will save the environment and ecology.
"Almost half of our wetlands have disappeared and all domestic sewage and most part of the industrial wastewaters are being discharged into natural environment without treatment," Dr. M. Ashraf Ali said in his keynote presentation.
He said much of our development planning was going against nature, he mentioned.
Citing example, Dr. Ashraf said although the Khilgaon -Bashabo Khal has been replaced by 20 feet wide U-channel, defective box culverts, has turned it into waste dumping place.
