Access to potable water for coastal people

People are living around the Sundarbans mangrove forest, the world heritage site, getting worse their lives every day due to the climate change effect. Most of the people depend on the forest for their livelihood. The water crisis is one of the major problems in their life due to saline water across the coastline in Bangladesh. Most of the people used to fishing on the rivers, some of them collect honey and wood from the mangrove forest. Most of the time people suffer for pure drinking water. They are leading their lives depending on nearby ponds and canal water.

Initiative:Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) has been working since 2015 to alleviate the drinking water crisis in the coastal areas. In the meantime, the pond has been re-excavated and by using local technology pond sand and filter (PSF) system has been installed to collect rain water. Reverse Osmosis Water Purification System has been set up to enhance the quality of water. A community-based sustainable water business model has been introduced for its sustainable and long-term management. BEDS has also installed 18 water wells in the Sundarbans coastal villages. Now we are installing another 20 water wells at a time in the different villages in the coastal area. As a result, drinking water crisis for the coastal people is going to be solved day by day.

Impact: Before installing the RO and water wells, most of the people of the locality used pond water for drinking and cooking purpose. Women spend most of their time by collecting water far from their residence. By using this water, they often suffered from various kinds of water contaminated diseases like diarrhea, cholera, Jaundice, dysentery etc. Pure drinking water was a cherished desire to them. After installing the Reverse Osmosis System, more than 15000 coastal villagers are getting safe drinking water.

Feedbacks from the beneficiaries:A housewife living in the coastal village expressed her feeling about the water wells water, “I used to collect drinking water from 3 kilometers away from my home and I spent a lot of time for this purpose. Now BESD has installed water well beside my residence and the quality of water is very fine. We are very happy and I would like to thank BEDS for solving our drinking water crisis”.

We would like to thank all our donors for their amazing and continuous support for the coastal deprived people. We are requesting all our donors to start monthly recurring donation by clicking the following link;

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/support-drinking-water-to-the-poor-coastal-people?show=recurring

Links:

• Coastal People delight in safe drinking water