Q1.  Please briefly describe the general water conditions in Bangladesh.
 
Water conditions in Bangladesh vary by region. Throughout central Bangladesh, and most prominently in the capital Dhaka City, people are highly dependent on groundwater for their daily use. In northern Bangladesh, the source of people’s water are the massive rivers and lakes that are fed by the Himalayan glaciers and monsoon rains. Central Bangladesh is reliant on groundwater, while rivers and lakes cover those regions as well. With the exception of the Chittagong Hill Tracks (CHT) that are home to Bangladesh’s native hill tribes, the south lies mainly below sea level and so there is constant intercourse between the fresh river water and salt water from the Bay of Bengal. The CHT is nestled in the southeast, where it receives plentiful rainfall that replenishes some of the groundwater and much of the lakes and rivers. As a whole, Bangladesh is extremely bountiful in water. It has a unique geographical location, position between the Bay of Bengal and the Himalayas, allowing it to receive thousands of gallons of fresh water via the Himalayas and Monsoon rains.
 
Q2:  What are the main water security/health challenges the country faces?
 
Bangladesh currently faces a variety of issues regarding their water security and health. One of the biggest challenges are the annual floods, caused by monsoon rains. Every year Bangladesh’s river banks burst, especially in southern regions, causing enormous damage to people’s homes, farms, and local infrastructure, while destroying local crops and spreading disease. What’s more is, the efforts made to develop the country by the Government of Bangladesh and international partners can be wiped out entirely in a single flood. For the millions of Bangladeshis coming out of poverty, floods can set them back decades as they destroy the assets they’ve accrued. More recently, the increase in the scale of flooding is causing seasonal internal migration. Many people are having to momentarily move from rural to urban areas so they can avoid the floods. Consequently, this puts an even greater strain on already limited urban resources
            The major urban centres of Bangladesh, particularly Dhaka City, are challenged by the scale of the population. With millions of urban settlers living in overcrowded, informally built slums, the access to clean water or waste management is minimal. Millions of impoverished Bangladeshis have even built their homes on the banks of rivers and lakes, like Gulshan Lake and Bannani Lake in Dhaka City. As a result, raw sewage flows around them, while water from these polluted lakes are used personal hygiene to commercial needs. Furthermore, those exposed to such polluted waterways are at high risk of suffering from cholera, malaria, dengue and other waterborne diseases.
            Another major water and health issue for Bangladesh is the quality and quantity of their ground water. During the rule of the British, the demand for clean drinking water lead to drilling deeper water wells. This policy was carried out long after the British and has resulted in high levels of arsenic being released into the public’s water.  
            Lastly, with over a third of the country lying below sea level, the effects of global climate change are dramatically being felt along the southwestern coastline. The Bay of Bengal has been increasingly swelling up, drowning the beaches and increasing the volume of upward flowing rivers. This is causing a great deal of salinization in the region as salt water is flowing upstream and flooding freshwater lakes, rivers and farmland. This is devastating local agriculture, natural ecosystems like the endangered mangroves, and decimating the fresh water fish population, which acts as a vital source of protein for many poor communities.
             
Q3:  Describe a situation you saw of unsafe water affecting people.
 
When I was on a trip to the field, visiting project sites, I was walking through a quiet village in the northwestern province of Sylhet. It was the end of the rainy season and since there were no rivers in the area, people had created small ponds where the rainwater could be collected. A mother and her children slid their way down the banks and into the pond. The mother began helping her son bathe, scrubbing his hair, as he rinsed his arms and chest. On their end of the pond the water seemed clean, but in my corner it had a green froth, bubbling at the surface, emitting a pungent odour. I thought about how many people in the village came to use this pond for their daily needs and how this water remained standing, until new rainwater would replenish it.
            My time in Dhaka City however provided me with daily exposure to unsafe water affecting people. One of the largest lakes in the city is known as Gulshan lake, named after that area of the city. I would pass it everyday on my way to work. At the edge of that lake, there were people who lived there in small makeshift shelters, selling cane sugar or roasted peanuts by the bridge. I would frequently see them using the lake to wash themselves, to wash their clothes and belongings, while many would defecate and urinate within the same area. This lake was incredibly polluted; the stench would travel for meters, raw sewage from large slums and commercial buildings flowed in untreated, and the runoff from the streets would seep into the lake. Just like those I had seen in the rural districts, for those I saw surviving by the lake, there was also no other source of affordable water.
 
Q4:  Describe a program or innovation that would improve the situation.
 
During my time in Bangladesh, I saw a number of programs and innovations that were being used to tackle such challenges. The UNDP however, had a program called Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities (SWAPNO). Essentially, rural women, living in extreme poverty were trained to maintain local river banks, bridges, canals and other infrastructure meant to protect against floods. Local women would receive living wages by the local government, trained in part by the UNDP, and local infrastructure would be strengthened against floods. This helped to strengthen communities against flooding, but also empower women and reduce poverty.
            In regards to salinization of fresh water in the coastal areas, many farmers created ponds that would be flooded by the incoming salt water. Then instead of growing vegetables or fishing fresh water fish, they created shrimp farms and salt water fish farms from those ponds. Though this is not a permanent solution, it is a momentary innovation for their economic wellbeing.
 
 
Q5:  How could NGOs and the international community help?
 
NGOs and the international community could help with these challenges by increasingly working with Union Parishads (UP), which are Bangladesh’s smallest rural administrative and local government units. By taking a bottom up approach, the unique needs of different communities can be targeted and effectively addressed. As it can be seen, there is no national water crisis, rather many regional water crisis or challenges. In turn, UPs can take over the projects and sustain them through the central government’s funding. This empowers the local people to be self-sustaining, reduces their dependency on higher levels of government.
            In regards to just the international community, it must increase funding for local solutions, NGOs and programmes designed to treat Bangladesh’s water problems. However, it is critical that funds are highly targeted and strategic, to ensure resources are used at its effectively and efficiently. 

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