WASA to focus on coastal areas to address safe water crisis

Chairman of the Dhaka WASA Board Dr Sujit Kumar Bala on Thursday said it is the time to look at the water issues in the coastal areas.

"There is a lack of fresh water availability in the coastal areas and water scarcity is aggravated during floods and cyclones. Using nature-based solutions is not enough to deal with this crisis," he said.

"WASA is mostly focused on Dhaka, but I believe it's time to look at the issues our coastal communities are facing with fresh water," the WASA chairman said.

He made these comments at a discussion and photo exhibition programme organised by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) under the 'Community-Based Resilience, Women's Empowerment and Action (CREA)' Project on the occasion of World Water Day, says a statement.

The theme of the event was "Access to safe water in climate-vulnerable areas: A gender perspective."

Hasin Jahan, Country Director of WaterAid Bangladesh, presented the keynote paper at the event.

She presented that only 15 per cent of the people in the country had access to piped water supply and 60 per cent of the people got the benefit of safe water.

In addition, 26 million people are exposed to very high salinity in shallow groundwater. The risk of infant mortality also increases due to the consumption of excess salt water during pregnancy.

"Women are globally called 'water managers' due to their greater involvement in water collection, usage and supply. Women cannot participate in income-generating and agricultural activities while devoting extra time to collect water. As a result, they are lagging financially," she said.

Shaheen Anam, Executive Director of MJF, who moderated the event, called for a collective action saying, 'Women are subjected to sexual harassment in various ways while providing water for their families. Access to safe drinking water and clean water are human right but the plight of women is often overlooked.

'We want a collaborative approach to solve the crisis. The government alone cannot create solutions to this. So, the private sector and NGOs like us have to find a way to work together with the government."

After the discussion, Shaheen Anam showed the guests around the photo exhibition. The theme of the exhibition was 'Climate Change and Vulnerability of Women'.

Two women who are suffering from a safe water crisis in the CREA project implementation areas joined virtually and shared their experiences. They highlighted the unavailability of safe drinking water due to salinity, the difficulty in collecting it, the outbreak of various diseases due to the use of unsafe water, and consequently, the increase in domestic violence.

SMA Rashid, Executive Director of NGO Forum for Public Health, Sharmistha Debnath, Executive Engineer of the Department of Public Health Engineering, Mostafizur Rahman, Program Officer of the Development Cooperation Section of the Embassy of Sweden, Dharitri Kumar Sarkar, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Md Robiul Alam, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, also spoke on the occasion.