Posted by Anik Dey on 11 February 2021

The raucous alarm filled Rukhsana’s room at precisely 8:00 AM in the morning. As she prepared to get out of bed, Rukhsana realized that her alarm had not only woken her but had rudely stirred her two-year-old. Already panicking about her 8:30 AM webinar, Rukhsana took her baby in one hand and laptop in the other. This is the story of a working mother—Rukhsana and the story of millions of other struggling women like her during the horrendous time of the ongoing global pandemic, the coronavirus.

In early March of 2020, the coronavirus, more popularly known as Covid-19 made an appalling debut in Bangladesh affecting millions of lives and families throughout the nation. This pandemic has successfully put a halt to the plans and dreams of everyone, everywhere. However, this virus has a profound and greater impact on the lives of women compared to men. While Coronavirus is without a doubt at its heart a global health emergency, in the expansive plan of things, it is also a three-sided issue of health, economic, and social crisis which are being extensively felt especially by women.

Different examinations, including WHO and OECD, have demonstrated that women are unfairly affected by COVID-19 as it increased burden of unpaid care work, domestic violence, job loss, lack of access to sexual and reproductive health care services, restricted mobility in the public province and much more. What is most concerning however, is the fact that women throughout the globe, and also in Bangladesh have become severe victims of what is known as emotional labor.

The term emotional labor was first introduced by famous social scientist Arlie Hochschild in her 1983 book “The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling”. This term can be understood as the way towards overseeing emotions to meet the prerequisites of responsibilities. In simple terms, it refers to the practice of ignoring one’s mental wellbeing in order to physically provide for work, be that professional or personal.

Emotional labor is customarily underestimated and uncompensated. Overlooking one’s mental health for office, home or any other commitments might be lethal both for the concerned individual and for the work itself. At the same time, this issue is hard to gauge, which results in a lot of women not even realizing that they are overworking themselves—let alone their employers and families. This habit further results in a never-ending pattern of women taking on more work than they can chew and negatively harming their mental health. High level of stress, lack of down time and a greater risk of exhaustion are only few of the many effects of emotional labor on women.

Moreover, in the midst of the COVID-19 scourge, schools were moved into online learning in Bangladesh. Support from house help or extended family members also get limited during this period. For those that are lucky enough to have the option to work from home, there is still the test of sorting out how to deal with the stay-at-home children and deciding on who gets to focus more on professional work—mom or dad? The emotional burden, in these cases are unexpectedly placed on the mothers. Even if the father generously shares the weight of housework, the emotional stress remains with the mother i.e., women.

By now it can be assumed that the emotions of every individual, especially working women are running high with constant uncertainties. With organisations struggling to remain profitable and also in existence, the repercussions of uncertainty extend to the employees as well. Added to this is the fear of losing jobs that makes one work harder and not complain about long hours. While there is no perfect solution towards eliminating emotional labor completely, some of the burden can be relieved to reduce stress and allow families to move as comfortably as possible through this time. One important way that this can be done is through the organisation that the individual women works in. Workplaces should be more sensitive to the needs of women working from home. Organisation should take into account that women need both rest and respite from juggling different roles.

To cope with the unprecedented pandemic situation as well as to ease the engagement of colleagues, WaterAid Bangladesh, a UK based international NGO has been taking different wellbeing measures from the very beginning to support employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides doing the obvious such as providing increased flexibility including work from home option, physical work roster, flexible work hour, psychosocial counselling support, health and safety gear supply, broadband/internet support at home, treatment funds apart from developing several work protocol/guidelines, encouraging and hosting more virtual social events to ensure increased engagement and fostering positive coping, WaterAid Bangladesh has put a special emphasis on the female employees across the organization including its partners.

WaterAid Bangladesh has organized a unique virtual session on the mental well-being and psychological grooming for all the female employees focusing on coping and balancing the work-home crisis in the time of COVID-19. This session titled, “Pandemic challenges: coping with stress and uncertainties" took place virtually on 2 November 2020 with more than 60 women participants from WaterAid Bangladesh and its partners conducted by a qualified psycho-social counsellor Ms. Rubina Jahan. She is also working as the Senior Manager - Mental Health Program (SMHP) with SAJIDA Foundation, one of the partners of WaterAid Bangladesh.

The half day- long session was extremely interactive where a number of participants extemporaneously shared their own experiences and coping mechanisms which ultimately enabled others to connect with each other. It also gave them the confidence and platform to share their own stories, as well as gave them a chance to adapt with the critical and unusual context. Ms. Rubina Jahan empathetically listened to the struggles of these working WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) women throughout the session and provided them with necessary counselling support. Furthermore, she shared tips regarding certain measures on how to control stress and suggested the following to practice for contributing towards making the lives of these hardworking women colleagues a little easier.

She suggested:

1. Share responsibilities: If you share your home with a partner, discuss how to share the tasks you are taking in light of COVID-19. Work on identifying tasks your partner could do to help equalize the burden together. While this action in itself falls under emotional labor, verbalizing these needs can help understand the undervalued and unnoticed labor performed on a daily basis.

2. Be kind with yourself: It is okay to not be your most productive self for every single moment especially for those with young children. Over perfection may lead to creating stress. Meeting standards is essential especially for critical deliverables but being too peaky for all the time may not add value to work much. Sometimes, you can leave your bed or wardrobe untidy and that should not make you feel guilty!

3. Take breaks: Give yourself frequent breaks from work and from the family when needed. This might mean stepping outside for a few deep breaths, a cup of coffee alone in the bedroom or a virtual yoga class in the living room.

4. Set and hold boundaries: Avoid burnout and other negative effects of emotional labor by setting and holding boundaries during times of crisis.

5. Be physically active: Be that working out, meditating, or practicing breathing exercises; it is crucial to keep one’s mind at peace, especially during this hour. Being active will help the brain relax and focus well.

6. Dedicate a room / a corner to be your home office: A wide desk, an ergonomic chair, and a little silence will increase your productivity and help you feel that you are working in a professional environment.

7. Spare some time for self: At the very end of her session, Ms. Jahan emphasized on taking proper care of own self, she mentioned that everyone should spare some time for their own self and think about doing something recreational for own mental wellbeing which will ultimately insulate each and every one with mental strength and energy.

The psychosocial counselling session by WaterAid Bangladesh has been highly appreciated by the participants. They felt relieved by sharing their experiences and thoughts with others and by receiving counselling support from an expert. This has been termed as the demonstration of ‘SHE FOR SHE’ by the participants at end of the session. As the female colleagues seem to be more vulnerable in this pandemic situation, for upholding their courage and motivation, WaterAid Bangladesh will continue to take relevant initiatives to boost up their mental health and wellbeing at regular interval.

Lastly, lockdowns and self-quarantine measures across the world have increased women’s workload as more people are home-bound for a continued period of time and caregiving tasks have increased. The super women around the globe had to face yet another challenge in their lives that directly had the ability to hamper both personal and professional settings for them. The biggest fallout of working from home, most participants say, is there are no boundaries when it comes to the hours of work. Working 9-5 is a concept of the past life, in the ‘new normal’ one is expected to be on call late into the night even on weekends. Individuals, especially women are expected to work regardless of their health or the deterioration of their family’s health. If we are moving towards a ‘new normal’ then we have to set acceptable protocol of working hours during work from home, required break, professional etiquettes and so on. Organizations need to normalize all employees’ lives and needs to understand the day to day practical situation of the employees in particular, the female employees. Only then an organization can expect to earn the trust, loyalty, and maximum productivity from its employees.

Posted by Anik Dey on 2 January 2021

Domestic rice and wheat production in Bangladesh has more than doubled in the last 30 years, despite declining per capita arable land. The fact that the country is now almost self-sufficient in staple food production is due in large part to successful and rapid adoption of modern, high-yielding crop varieties. This has been widely documented, but less attention has been paid to the contribution of small-scale irrigation systems, whose proliferation has enabled double rice cropping and a competitive market system in which farmers can purchase irrigation services from private pump owners at affordable rates.

However, excess groundwater abstraction in areas of high shallow tube-well density and increased fuel costs for pumping have called into question the sustainability of Bangladesh’s groundwater irrigation economy. Cost-saving agronomic methods are called for, alongside aligned policies, markets, and farmers’ incentives.

A recent study by researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) examines the different institutions and water-pricing methods for irrigation services that have emerged in Bangladesh, each of which varies in their incentive structure for water conservation and the level of economic risk involved for farmers and service providers.

Using primary data collected from 139 irrigation service providers and 556 client-farmers, the authors assessed the structure of irrigation service types as well as the associated market and institutional dimensions. They found that competition between pump owners, social capital, and social relationships between pump owners and client farmers significantly influence the structure of irrigation services and irrigation water pricing methods. Greater competition between pump owners, for instance, increases the likelihood of pay-per-hour services while reducing that of crop sharing arrangements.

Based on these and other findings, authors made policy recommendations for enhancing irrigation services and sustainability in Bangladesh. As Bangladesh is already highly successful in terms of conventional irrigation systems, the authors urge taking it to the next level for sustainability and efficiency.

Currently Bangladesh’s irrigation system is based on centrifugal pumps and diesel engines. The authors suggest scaling out the energy efficient axial flow pump and the alternate wetting and drying system for water conservation and irrigation efficiency. They also recommend further investment in rural electrification to facilitate the use of electric motors, which can reduce air pollution by curbing dependency on diesel engines.

Posted by Anik Dey on 13 August 2020

It is heartening to see that the Government of Bangladesh continues to demonstrate strong ownership of the SDGs having conducted its second Voluntary National Review (VNR) of progress towards the SDGs ahead of the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development 2020. Unlike previous years, this year’s VNR encapsulates progress towards all 17 SDGs, including SDG 6 – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

We are encouraged to see the VNR report acknowledging the low levels of WASH investments in hard-to-reach areas such as chars, haors, coastal belts, and hilly areas. WaterAid along with sector actors have regularly highlighted this spatial disparity as part of annual WASH budget advocacy over the last few years. We are hopeful that the Government will realize its commitment to ‘leaving no one behind’ by reaching the poor and marginalized communities in these hard-to-reach and climate-vulnerable areas with inclusive, innovative, and sustainable solutions.

Bangladesh has made good progress in expanding access to WASH services – 99% of the population has access to improved water sources, and open defecation has been minimized to less than 1% of the population (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme 2019).

However, concerns remain when we look at the quality of these services as stressed by the SDGs. 40.3% of the household population still uses water that has fecal contamination at the source. (Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019).

There also appears to be some inconsistency in reporting the progress against some of these quality indicators. For instance, the VNR report states that the national coverage of safely managed sanitation is 84.6%, which actually refers to the coverage of improved sanitation (Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019). There is a need for attention from the Government to ensure a realistic representation of the progress so that targeted interventions could be made to achieve SDG 6 by 2030.

With mixed progress recorded in the first five years of the SDGs, the international community has identified the next ten years as the ‘Decade of Action’, calling for accelerating sustainable solutions to global challenges. The VNR report of the Bangladesh government identifies some of the most pressing challenges and articulates a way forward towards achieving SDG 6. It is now time to transform these words into action so that everyone, everywhere has sustainable access to clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene by 2030.

Posted by Anik Dey on 26 June 2020

World Health Organization (WHO) is mandated to address global health priorities, provide due leadership and guide global health stakeholders on health issues; and play critical, strategic and special role during any emergency; likewise, for COVID-19, WHO adopted key steps, disseminated guidelines and analysed data to update periodically. They have been sharing those with the governments for planning actions. Parts of the process were incorporated during the recently held 73rd World Health Assembly (WHA73) on 17 May 2020, virtually for the first time. It encountered condensed agenda to fit into two days.

Most of the agenda revolved around COVID-19 pandemic, the nature of novelty of virus and prevailing public health challenges globally. The novelty of COVID-19 might avail many aspects of combatting this flu in reality but importance of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) remains as an urgent priority as believed by many public health professionals.

The two-day sessions covered many discussion, including vaccine, universal health coverage (UHC), tuberculosis (TB), Cholera, neglected tropical disease (NTD), ageing, routine organisational issues and many speeches in different sessions and responses from member countries. Due to prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, the agenda 3 as discussed on 19 May 2020 during WHA73 with a paper shared by European Union (EU), got huge attention by public health professionals and created the space for further discussion.

Why is WASH a backstage agenda?

The general session of WHA73 started with speeches of the Director General (DG) of WHO and other dignitaries. The speech of the DG, Dr. Tedros Adhanom was very comprehensive, covered most part of the issues encircling COVID-19 pandemic and contained around 4,000 words while just once used the word ‘hand hygiene’ and once again ‘clean water’ but no issue on WASH and priorities. On the contrary, most preventive approaches of COVID-19 lie in hygiene and broader WASH factors, particularly in communities, public places and densely populated slums. WHO also, since the very beginning of COVID-19 problem, prioritized the basic hygiene awareness and disseminated messages related to these, but this forum did not focus the importance on hygiene where all member’s states were present and listened to the key points at this high profile platform.

During April 2020, at least 10 countries (mostly Latinos) proposed for supplementary agenda to invite Taiwan in the WHA73; unfortunately, no proposal found from any of the 190 member state countries to include a petition to highlight WASH or hygiene agenda within the papers or documents to be disseminated during WHA73.

Bangladesh is one of the 34 board members and Bangladesh got only 2 minutes’ time to share their stand and in the written statement, the Bangladesh team-lead, the hon’ble Minister, ministry of health and family welfare (MOHFW) uttered the “Whole-of-the-Government” approach and narrated the adjustment plan to COVID-19 in terms of mostly at clinical settings with intensive care unit (ICU) beds, recruitment of health work force but the preventive approaches were not present unfortunately; neither focused nor indicated. On the contrary, the preventive approach was highlighted majorly in all messages, i.e., hand hygiene, face hygiene and cough etiquette or the personal hygiene issues. Availability of clean water or environmental cleanliness were also part of the preventive approach by the government. This absolute no-mention of WASH related matters during WHA73 clearly indicates to lesser attention provided by the top level of the ministry of health through cascade-down effects towards public health professionals of the country. This surely induced frustration to both health and WASH sector; in larger development sector.

While over 70 countries responded to the draft resolution on agenda item 3. Surprisingly again the absence of broader WASH issues mentioned and only key points mentioned including hygiene in only at OP7.4. Several countries specially put note on this agenda item 3 and they are Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Philippine, USA etc. Brazil though agreed to co-sponsor and explained their position but focused on SRHR gap; while USA put emphasis on international health regulation.

The WASH issues were also not addressed adequately in the UN resolution 74/270: Global solidarity to fight the COVID-19, nowhere mentioned on the importance of very basic needs of life including WASH to address to tackle this. Rather the UN resolution 74/274 very elaborately described the need of medicine and equipment while apparently this is actually required by only 10-15% of the COVID-19 patients. Most of community level preventive approaches against COVID-19 are related to WASH being the first line of defense for COVID-19 hygiene awareness in most marginalized communities and therefore it requires heavy engagement in terms of both of awareness raising and service delivery to ensure in the communities, for all even in underserved and resource poor settings.

At this situation, it appeared that WASH is fundamentally neglected during WHA73 and revealed that integration of WASH and health is miles away from each other. Having realized this also sheds a positive light, it creates ample opportunities for the WASH actors and advocates towards string more intense and productive debate and dialogue for integration.

Government of Bangladesh has developed the ‘National Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19, Bangladesh’ (Version 5: March 2020) and has captured several important aspects of the COVID related preventive approaches and management guidelines. The plan depicted six priority activities where MOHFW will respond against COVID-19. It is to mention that until the Version 3 of this document, WASH was not broadly included but national level advocacy by WaterAid Bangladesh and other key actors continued relentlessly with the MOHFW over the past months and the Version 5 entails ‘WASH’ convincingly in the document. It is inspiring to all of us and we mark it as turning point of integrating health and WASH.

However, the plan still requires detailing of the measures as indicated in the document and further advocacy will continue by WaterAid with MOHFW as COVID-19 seems to stay for a relatively longer duration and lot many actions relate to managing the COVID issues effectively.

During the WHA73, lot of health-related issues were discussed profoundly but majorly roamed around vaccines or medicines; but not on WASH as a means of saving mass people lives and thus a kind of important protective vaccine as well. Even during the closing remark, the DG of WHO mentioned of the essential health services yet not again his speech encompassed WASH related components. Indeed, technology, vaccine, system issues are important but WASH as a cross cutting basic service amenities should have a position and be discussed and mentioned within broader agenda, particularly in this kind of top-level forum and discussion board. Thus, huge advocacy is required in future to further promote WASH agenda in both national and global meetings.

Posted by Anik Dey on 6 November 2019

The haor or backswamp areas in the northeast of Bangladesh are a sight in the rainy season. When I had last visited the sub-district of Tahirpur in Sunamganj district in winter, we had travelled by motorcycle over rugged potholed roads and long stretches of sand. By the time I visited this August, much of Tahirpur had transformed into vast watery plains, and the unique beauty and challenges of this wetland ecosystem were in full display.

I had come to Tahirpur to see the WASH in Health project being implemented by WaterAid Bangladesh, in partnership with the NGO Efforts for Rural Advancement (ERA) funded by HSBC. In this isolated region, community clinics are the vital frontline of healthcare services. We are working with local government and communities across 18 community clinics in this upazila to revitalise clinic management, upgrade WASH facilities, and support surrounding communities to access safe water, improved sanitation and proper hygiene.

The haor communities are at the heart of this initiative, and a key role is being played by local volunteers. In each of the seven unions of the upazila, a group of 9-10 community volunteers are working alongside the project team to motivate households to install improved WASH facilities and adopt good hygiene practices. These young, energetic volunteers make household visits, conduct sessions on menstrual hygiene management, and organise mothers’ group meetings. Each volunteer receives a small honourarium and an additional amount when they perform exceptionally well, such as motivating multiple households to construct or renovate a latrine, or start using handwashing devices. This is one of the first project WaterAid Bangladesh has tried this approach in, replacing some of the responsibilities typically carried out by the partner organisation with members from target communities.

I had the opportunity to meet with a group of nine volunteers from Uttar Sreepur union. Having travelled close to two hours by boat to reach the remote islet the volunteers had gathered at, what was immediately striking was the vivacity and enthusiasm of these women despite the challenges they face in their work every day.

Most of the families in the area are poor, relying on income from crops grown during the dry season to see them through the lean months. Land is so scarce that there is barely space to build a proper house, and people and animals often live in the same room with not even a partition between them. Cramped clusters of households are separated by long distances that take hours to cross by boat in the rainy season or motorcycle in the dry season. Under these extreme circumstances, motivating people to invest in WASH is a formidable task.

“All we have is our words”, says Ambia Khatun. She describes how people were unwilling to give time initially, and they faced criticism for not offering any payment or other incentives for their meetings. “We have to request women coming to the mother’s group sessions for a mat to sit on, and have been told off so many times for not even being able to provide even this one thing!”. But these volunteers have matured into strong advocates over time, and they smile as they describe how they approach people unwilling to listen. Azima Begum explains, “You have to go back many times, you can’t give up. We talk about their children’s health, the cost of getting help when someone falls ill.” They share their own experiences with their neighbours, demonstrating how they practice proper sanitation and hygiene, and how their own families have been benefited.

Jaya Rani tells me about how her father encouraged her to apply for the community volunteer role, but passed away before she got the position. With her first salary, Jaya Rani built a sanitary latrine in her own house in memory of her father. Like Jaya, other volunteers speak of building latrines in their homes as the first crucial step, inspiring those around them to make the same investment. Now, Bithi Rani tells me about the changes her work has brought in her village, where there used to be just a handful of proper latrines for nearly 250 households, and open defecation was common.

But along with improvements in WASH conditions in these areas, perhaps the most striking aspect of the project is the change evident in the volunteers’ own lives. Each volunteer faces the same struggle as the households they work with, and they are intimately familiar with the hardships of life in the haor.

Ruby Begum was unemployed after passing her intermediate exams, and her family could not afford further education for her. She says, “I can continue my education because of what I earn from my work. I even support my younger sister’s studies from my income, and I bought her a sewing machine so she can start earning a bit too. We are poor and my parents were considering marrying her off even though she was a child – I could spare my parents from committing the sin of child marriage because of my work.”

Bithi Rani comes from a family of five siblings. Her father had to borrow from different people just to complete the formalities for her intermediate examination, and attending college was a distant dream. Her father told her she would have to get married, but Bithi decided to apply for the community volunteer position, and now supports her college education and her brother’s school expenses from her earnings.

When Nasima Akhtar was in college, her father died and her older brother separated from the family – there was no way she could complete her degree. With the money she earned as a community volunteer, Nasima completed her degree and is now doing her Master’s.

Each story is as powerful as the next, and I come away from my trip inspired by the strength and dignity that shine through the stories of these women. The same strength imbues their work in bringing water, sanitation and hygiene to one of the most remote corners of the country, against severe odds. This project’s impact is not only being felt in communities and healthcare facilities, but in the lives of each of these volunteers who represent local potential, local ownership and local championing of WASH.

Posted by Shahrukh Mirza on 31 July 2019

This month, I had the unique opportunity to attend the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in the United Nations, as part of the Bangladesh Government’s delegation. Falling outside of my usual deskbound way of working, this was an eye-opening experience on the complexities of the UN system, the dynamics of state and civil society, and the overwhelming necessity of keeping the 2030 Agenda front and centre if we are to reach everyone, everywhere with safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

The first day of the HLPF ended with the thematic review of Goal 6 – one of the highlights of my week, bringing country level progress to the global stage in three hours of rapid-fire speeches from different governments and major groups representatives. It was heartening to see state after state acknowledge the foundational role of WASH in achieving the SDGs (and to see that even UN sessions face technical glitches!), but also concerning that sanitation and hygiene were so sidelined in the dialogue. Without water, sanitation and hygiene working together, we cannot ensure people’s health, development or dignity, and it is those who are most vulnerable – children, women and girls, persons with disabilities, the elderly – who are most affected. When a child under 5 dies every two minutes from diarrhoea caused by inadequate toilets and dirty water, there is a need for more urgency and action from all of us, but especially the political leadership represented in the HLPF.

Towards the end of the week, I had the chance to speak briefly at an event on participatory approaches to sanitation, hosted by the Government of Bangladesh and UNITAR. The session spanned both national level overviews as well as more detailed presentations on rural and urban sanitation, with contributions from academia and civil society along with the government. What stood out for me was how some of the most senior figures in the room were echoing many of WaterAid Bangladesh’s key messages, including the role of WASH in empowering women and girls, the multiplier effect of investment in WASH, and the need to put sanitation at the centre of development. I’m hopeful these messages will resonate beyond the room, and that more participatory and nuanced discussions of this nature will find a bigger space in upcoming Forums.

Coming back to the realities of a waterlogged Dhaka (and my trusty desk), I carry a greater appreciation for the ways in which our work at the local level is connected to, and shaped by, seemingly distant events. Whether WAB can participate next year or not, we have our part to play in making sure that the HLPF represents the interests of those we work with – those living in crowded urban slums, the remote rural char islands, and the climate-ravaged coast. I’m hopeful we can work with the government to push for more comprehensive review mechanisms that can assess progress accurately, help identify and address challenges openly, and ensure accountability at all levels. This is an ambitious target, but what I take from my HLPF experience is an understanding of how global changes are ultimately driven by local advocacy and local partnerships; and a renewed sense of our place and purpose in the universal mission to leave no one behind.