Bangladesh WaterAid

Final visit of the trip

So, after what seems a very long week, we visited a post intervention urban slum near the centre of Dhaka Capital City.  The project we visited has been proceeding since 2007 in which time the residents have gained a fresh water supply from the Dhaka water authority and installed three sanitary latrine blocks.  The residents did have latrines prior to intervention, but they were poor quality and in the rainy season, and following blockages, the sewage from the latrine would overflow and run down the pathways of the slums and sometimes through peoples houses.  There would be puddles of stagnant water too.

The assistance from WaterAid partners has assisted the community in planning for their future, and in a similar way to what we have seen in previous projects, the community maps out the slum and notes areas of problems and at their monthly meetings the committee produce an action plan similar to how we would manage any project and they make decisions on how to solve the problems.  When working as a group they are able to contact the Dhaka water authority directly and now that the landlord has set them up with legal water supplies which they are billed for, they are treated like any other water company customer.

I spoke to a family who had moved into the area when the improvements were done, and they were happy with their situation, and lived better lives without the disease and poor conditions of before.  There is still something worth mentioning though.  These people are still incredibly poor, and the work that WaterAid and their partners has achieved will improve their quality of life dramatically, but is still a million miles away from anything that you or I would have to live with.

Finally, for those in the UK.  It's been about 31 degrees here today.  I still can't see any snow  :o)

Pre Intervention rural community

Today we drove from Khulna to the Nalbubia Cluster in Nalbubia village which have not had any intervention from WaterAid.

The community village is in low lying coastal land which is susceptable to saline intrusion to the water supply.  Only 5% of the villagers have already taken their own initiative and installed latrines in most homes so they have already solved the easiest problem of avoiding contaminating their own water supply.  That leaves a lot still to be educated, and the actions of the majority may still have a big effect on the minorty who have already implemented sanitary procedures.

The villagers currently have to walk over 2km to a council provided pond to collect their drinking water.  The water in the pond is rain water and in the dry season has the potential to run dry.  A pond sand filter was buit 6 years ago, but has never been operational, so this is a potential area of improvement which WaterAid partners could follow up easily if the need is identified as a high priority.

The area is mostly covered in water, where it used to be a large percentage of rice fields.  The farmers realised that the saline water in the soil was gradually deteriorating the quality of the crops, and many turned to shrimp fishing as it was more profitable and more suitable for the conditions.  This is still the case, but the family I interviewed had a problem with a virus which killed all of their shrimp within 3 days and it takes 3 months to recover a saleable amount of shrimp again.  Also, once the land has been turned to shrimp farming it can never be returned to use for growing crops.  This is just an idea of the hard decisions these people have to make in day to day life and they do appreciate all the help they are given.

From what we've experienced in post-intervention communities, it is often the case that within 18 months of a project being started with a community, they will begin to form their own initiatives, removing their reliance upon outside agencies, and also spread the knowledge to local villages.

It's been another good educational day, and we're back in the capital city Dhaka now for our final visit to a post intervention slum in the morning.

I want to thank South East Water and WaterAid for this opportunity, because it's truly amazing.

Visit to Coastal Communities

Today we were back on the road and a had a two hour drive to the region of Satkira and a district of Shyamnagar where we visited projects which have been assisted by a WaterAid partner in the area.

The challenges faced by these rural communities are linked to their low lying position and closeness to the coastline of the Bay og Bengal.  This area suffers from cyclones every year which cause destruction of property which you would see in the news, but lesser reported events where communities water supplies become infected by saline water from the tidal surges.

We visited a community who showed us how they had improved their sanitary conditions by the creation of a Pond Sand Filter which uses a hand pump to raise the water onto a sand filter bed and then out through taps.  The difference to the water is a better taste, smell and less solid particles.  The water looks perfect.  The families now suffer from less illness and are encouraged to pursue further projects to enhance the community position.  The level of planning done within the community is very business like and a lot of hard work goes into ensuring that their future is healthier.

However, the contrast to all this hard work is that they still live on land which in 30 years time could be under water due to climate change.  This is just something to consider, then think that if you were in that situation wouldn't you be asking the question 'What do we do?'.  It's thought provoking and I have to thank Jez from Sutton and East Surrey Water for raising the point.

On a brighter note, the people that I met today were all very welcoming once again, and their way of life still has a lot of great benefits.  As I sat on one families porch looking out over their rice fields and ponds, it was so calm and friendly that you could easily just sit there for hours.  The difference is that these people never get that chance as they are constantly working to achieve a better standard of living.  When I return to work I will post a lot more images of the work we have seen done today and hopefully give you a better idea of how WaterAid really can change peoples lives.

And the weather, it's not snowing.  :o)

Visit to Khulna slum

Today was a national strike in Bangladesh which meant we were unable to travel by road.  This gave us the fantastic opportunity of an hours walk from the hotel to the first slum.  We walked through the local market street and alongside the river past the shipping port where goods were imported from other areas of Bangladesh and from China and more recently Burma.  Once again, we were welcomed everywhere we walked and greeted by absolutely everyone it seemed.

The slums we visited today were post-intervention (WaterAid have already worked here) and the difference is immediately obvious.  The first thing is that the smell of the pre-intervention slum in Dhaka was not there and the walking areas were clean and wide.  The people of the Custom Bosti slum welcomed us and we sat in with their community as they showed us their paper plans of how they manage the sanitation now.  They have a map of the slum with all households named by their families and they have performance indicators of who is acheiving the required levels of cleanliness.  They showed us the latrines which have been built, the water pumps from the tube wells and the composting solution which they use to reduce waste and grow  vegetables.  This community also have a small business producing sanitary napkins to sell to the community for 30TK  (35p).  The community have plans going forward and are happy with the present situation and have been given the indepence to develop alone without WaterAid dependance.

The message from the community also gets out to local slums which have no WaterAid projects, and the people learn from this slum and being their own initiatives to improve their situation.  It is essential that the word is carried this way as currently only a small fraction of slums in the Khulna area are covered by WaterAid.

Tomorrow we are travelling South to see post intervention projects in areas affected by climate change.  Once again we will see a different set of challenges that the communities face.

Finally, we were treated to a cultural evening from a local drama group who act out stories of how peoples lives are changed by certain schemes, like the changes that WaterAid make.  They use a scrolling painted scroll with images which support their songs.  It was a fantstic experience and we all joined in with their final song and we treated them to an immaculate rendition of 'Londons Burning' which is the only thing we could think about which described an event in UK history and gave us a chance to work on our harmonies!

Dhaka - Pre Intervention

Today the group visited three separate slums in Dhaka which were pre-intervention (WaterAid have done no work in the area).
The visit enabled us to meet and interview a slum dweller to ask them about the conditions they live in, where they collect water, go to the toilet and wash.
Sarah and myself interviewed a 35 year old lady named Rashida who was married with four children and has lived in this slum for ten years.  Her husband shares one room with her and they have another room for the two children who have not left home.
The water supply to the household is provided by the landowner, but this is only for bathing and washing clothes and is usually only available from 8am to 2pm.  They collect their drinking water from the house of a local MP under some friendly agreement.
The community have shared use of hanging latrines, which is in basic terms a corrugated iron and bamboo shed with a hole in the floor on stilts over a pond.  The pond is also used for all the garbage from the slum as they have nowhere else provided for it.  Access  to the latrines is across a pile of rotting food waste and plastic packaging.  The area around the latrines is dangerous to walk on and in the rainy seasons the pond level can raise high enough that the waste water and garbage washes up into the lower houses forcing the residents to move higher up the slums.
Rashida is actually happy because she knows no different, but does appreciate that with better sanitation facilities their lives will be improved.  At the moment their biggest problem is the garbage disposal, which would make access to their latrine facilities safer and easier.  They would also benefit from a water supply which runs 24 hours a day, or at least had a storage tank at the top of the slum which they could draw from any time it's convenient.
This is the kind of work that WaterAid does for communities, working with local Non Goverment Organisations to decide who is most in need of the assistance.

We've moved on to Khulna today, on a hair raising 9 hour journey including a fantastic ferry crossing and a chance to really soak up the immense diversity of Bangladeshi culture at the roadside.  It's fascinating to just watch as people go about their daily business.  We were also centre of attention as we walked around the slums, but the people were so friendly and curious that it never felt threatening to have so many people surrounding you.

I'll try and add some photos soon.
Tomorrow we are walking to the slum projects in Khulna as there is a national strike which makes road travel impossible, or badly recommended at least.

First Post from Bangladesh

I'm blogging from the hotel in Bangladesh after being awake since 7am on 27th November in the UK.

We've been to the WaterAid Bangladesh office today and met the WA staff, who are all really nice.  The aim for tomorrow is to visit a pre-intervention slum in dhaka city before travelling 6 hours by car to Khulna including 30 minute ferry trip.

My first impressions of Bangladesh are that it's an amazing place.  It's just like being on a crazy Asian film set with near traffic misses round every corner!  There's an abundance of shops selling Alloy wheels and bull bars, then a row of shops dedicated to building.  They use bamboo as scaffold here and it's amazing to see.

We went for an after lunch walk around the local area and were followed by a sweet group of kids who were basically after Taka (money), but at that point no-one had any.  This is Bangladesh, and tomorrow the reality will hit home.

Hope to update again soon