In search of drinking water
"Other sufferings are bearable, but not suffering for lack of water."
"I came to fetch drinking water crossing a big canal. On the way back, I get down into the canal and cross to the other side as I cannot walk along the bamboo with the heavy pitcher," said 28-year-old Kulsum Begum.
Kulsum lives in Patjoynagar village of Kamarkhola union in Khulna's Dacope upazila. The village is over 50 kilometres from Khulna city.
For water, she has to walk to the pond adjacent to a mosque in Joynagar village, crossing the Kamar Goja canal -- a total distance of two kilometres from her residence.
Hundreds of other women and men come here to get water -- everyone was carrying pitchers and drums.
Kulsum's two children hover nearby as she fills two big pitchers. After filling one pitcher from the pond, she carries it half a kilometre to cross the canal.
"When I cannot lift the big pitcher from the canal bed then my two children try to help me with it," she said.
This is a daily routine for Kulsum; her family of six needs around 15 litres of water a day, provided there are no guests.
"Sometimes, we use fitkari [also known as alum, a traditional way of cleaning drinking water as it separates solid impurities which can then be thrown away] or other purifiers before drinking this pond water," she added.
Mosque goers also wash their hands and feet in the pond, which has mere knee-deep water.
"Some people are able to buy drinking water but we can't afford it," said Kulsum.
Kulsum was looking forward to the rains that sometimes fall right after the end of winter, but was disappointed this time. "I am praying to Allah but it is not raining."
She has a months-long wait until the rainy season begins in earnest.
Around 10 to 15 Nosimon, a locally made engine van, lingered beside the pond. People from various villages farther away -- including Rajnagar, Fakirdanga, Kashmir Kona, Patjoynagar, Sarabad, Satghoria -- of Kamarkhola union regularly come here to get water from the pond. Most however are unable to afford the ride and have to walk like Kulsum.
In the south-west, rising salinity in groundwater and freshwater ponds as well as widespread arsenic contamination of groundwater has led to a lack of safe drinking water.
When cyclone Aila hit the region in 2009, almost all its freshwater sources were destroyed. The situation has not improved much even 11 years after the disaster.
A few freshwater ponds, known as mitha pukur, and rainwater during the rainy season are the only drinking sources available for many.
The deep tubewells installed by the DPHE were insufficient and remain out-of-order most of the time -- due to which women have to walk miles every day in search of safe water sources, said Panchan Kumar Mondal, chairman of Kamarkhola union parishad.
For villagers with no freshwater pond or working deep tubewell nearby, other options for drinking water for households include rainwater harvesting, pond sand filters, and reverse osmosis.
All the above remain out of reach for poor villagers who have no alternative other than to drink contaminated water from local sources, said the Kamarkhola UP chairman.
"Over 80 percent of households do not get pure drinking water," he said, adding around 4,068 families lived in his union.
"I demanded 3,500 water tanks but I got only 450," he added.
It is women that pay the price. They walk long distances, taking up a large portion of their day, in order to collect fresh water.
The stories of Sujita Sarder and Pritilata Mondal of Rekha Mari village are much the same. They walk around 50 minutes to fetch drinking water every day.
"My back hurts from having to carry these heavy water pitchers every day along the uneven muddy road," said Sujita, a homemaker.
The water in this pond is quite fresh, so to speak, compared to many other ponds which are largely saline. This is why it is prized for drinking while villagers make do with saline pond water for other needs such as cleaning.
"I requested the UP chairman for a water tank but we are yet to get it," said Sujita.
She said she has been doing this every day for all 27 years of her marriage, adding that this task always falls to the woman's lot.
Pritilata also echoed this, saying her husband was busy with his job so she has to fetch drinking water from the pond.
Renu Fakir gets her water from the pond of the Alamshahi Institute in Garaikhali village. A resident of Betbunia village of Soledana union of Khulna's Paikgacha upazila, the pond is three kilometres away from her home. She has to cross the Mainz river.
Renu was one of many from various villages of Koyra and Dacope upazilas who come here to get water from the pond.
According to the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), around 60 lakh people living in Satkhira, Khulna, and Bagerhat are victims of a lack of sources of safe drinking water.
Villagers of Shyamnagar, Assasuni, Kaliganj, Tala, and Debhata upazilas of Koyra district in Satkhira; Paikgacha, Dacope, Batiaghata, and Dumuria upazilas of Khulna; and Mongla, Rampal, Chitalmari, and Morelganj upazilas of Bagerhat are facing an acute drinking water crisis due to rising salinity levels and arsenic contamination, it said.
According to DPHE data, 79 percent deep tubewells in Satkhira district are laced with arsenic.
The situation has deteriorated due to negligence of the government, said Montulal Sarkar of Rajnagar village.
"The salinity of the surface water increased due to uncontrolled shrimp cultivation," he said.
In 2011, the non-governmental organisation GIZ built a Tk 22 lakh solar pumping system pond sand filter beside the Joynagar Jame Mosque pond, where Kulsum and other villagers go for fresh water.
Yet the locals were unable to get a drop of water from it, said Mohiudden Kagozy from Joynagar.
In 2018, another NGO attempted to repair this unit, spending around Tk 1,71,000, but the unit is still dysfunctional, he added.
Sources in the DPHE in Dacope said there were some 46 government ponds in the upazila. However, due to lack of maintenance, many of these have dried up.
Recently, six ponds were dug to meet drinking water needs, they said, in addition to more than 810 shallow tube-wells being set up in the upazila.
In Koyra upazila, 52 out of 76 pond sand filters are out of order.
According to the DPHE in Dacope, 1,53,000 people in the upazila have no access to a deep tube-well.
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