Implementation

We aim to implement our project and benefit people of diverse range, covering all the water-crisis areas of Bangladesh. Currently, we have benefited 50+ rural families with our project.

The water crisis in Bangladesh is worsening every single year. Only a few decades back, a water crisis in the land of rivers would have seemed unimaginable. And this is what makes the situation more unique and tough to deal with. With Bangladesh it’s not just a few regions that have been affected, it’s the case for the entire country.

In southern Bangladesh, the water salinity has been on the rise for years now, and it has come to a point where it dictates life and death. In Khulna, home to the largest mangrove forest in the world, people have been drastically hit. The trend of natural calamities in southern Bangladesh has seen sea water gradually consuming more land, and drinkable water along with it. This has given a rise to various diseases. Salinity in drinking water is associated with increased risk of (pre)eclampsia and gestational hypertension in people. And by far the people of Khulna and nearby regions have been worse hit. Bangladesh has seen a 28 percent rise in pre-eclampsia cases since 2012. The study found that in most coastal areas, the level of salinity (chloride count) in the main or secondary aquifer ranges from 103 to 12,433 milligrams/litre during the dry months and 34 to 11,366 milligrams/litre in the rainy season. And Khulna is at the center of this.

Moving to the northern side, far away from the Bay of Bengal the problem here isn’t salinity, its waterborne diseases. The Rangpur division, home to X are hit by recurring floods between June to September. In 2020, a staggering 78 thousand people were infected with waterborne diseases. And 26,500 people were suffering from Diarrhea in Rangpur and its nearby regions.

Even in regions, previously hailed as being the cornerstone in Bangladeshi urban development, Sylhet fights an uphill battle as well. In a report by the Business Standard, it was cited that the city corporation failed to even provide one-third of the requisite water for the inhabitants. And the primary reason was being unable to meet such high water demands. The region has a deficit of 5 crore liter on a daily basis.

In Western Bangladesh, particularly Kushtia and its nearby area deals with threatening level of arsenic contamination. And it has been the case for over a decade now. A study in 2019 found that out of the 50 drinking water samples, 82% were largely contaminated. The numbers exceeded the WHO recommended limit by a huge a margin. The Arsenic contamination levels on the shallow aquifers ranged from 6.05-590.7 μg/L. The number is troubling news, considering this is way higher than the acceptable level.

However, similar to most countries around the world, the capital is a ticking time bomb. Dhaka, at the heart of Bangladesh has a whopping 9 million population. What makes matters worse is the high concentration of people. As a result of a falling water table and an overburdened energy grid, WASA is only able to provide 1.5 billion liters of water a day to a public that requires over 2.25 billion liters. The deficit has an adverse effect for such a high population. And Dhaka is a city surrounded by six rivers. However, all of them have been deemed almost untreatable. Making surface water extremely precious, as the ground water is depleting consistently.

As the groundwater levels drop, the situation has exacerbated to a point where Dhaka has its day zero on the horizon. At present, the average depth (below ground level) of the groundwater table is about 78 meters, which may sink down to 132 meters in the next 10-12 years.