Bangladesh: addressing health and water quality issues

About 25 million people in Bangladesh do not have access to clean drinking water and 40% of the population is affected by health issues caused by dirty water while it is the first cause of death among children. The village of Goaldihi experiences a similar situation to the rest of the country with a stressed water situation and a population suffering from many illnesses such as diarrhea assumed to be linked to poor quality water consumption and even leading to some deaths.

Pre-study

Previous tests in the village revealed the presence of a coliform bacteria E-coli in the wells confirming that water is the rooting cause of the health issues that also increase significantly during the monsoon as mosquitos and other bacteria thrive in these conditions. With a lack of knowledge of the current water situation in the village, further information was required to be able to address the health and water quality issues in the best way for the population.

Between 2020-2023 EWB-SWE conducted a pre-study to find the main issues of water contamination and to find potential solutions for the problems in hand. After months of planning, water quality tests, surveys and more, the project team has now been able to point out the main issues to the water contamination and sanitation issues as well, and suggest solutions that are economically feasible to increase the quality of the drinking water.

Issues and solutions

One of the first causes to water contamination identified is animal waste runoffs as the terrain is flat and part of riverine is flood plains. Another cause is the proximity of the tube wells next to pit latrines. Our survey data also shows a very high-water table of 2.5 meters. This is disadvantageous as the minimum vertical distance between the bottom of latrine pits and the water table should be at least 2 meters.

Based on this analysis, the project team has evaluated and proposed two different solutions for safe drinking water (raised deep tube wells which can be powered by solar cells and ceramic filtration which is an old but effective to purify water), two solutions for safe sanitation (composting toilets and elevated pit latrines), together with a sludge management solution (biogas).

Next step

Based on the survey done by our local partner BRIF with the village as their preferred solution, we will implement the solution consisting of raised deep tube wells with solar cells to supply the village with safe drinking water in the comin months.

We are grateful to our supporters for their funding in this key phase of our project: Vatten och Miljökonsulterna AB, HVR Water purification AB as well as everyone that participated in Marcus Nilsson´s fundraising campaign. We  also extend a special thanks to all the volunteers donating their time and expertise toward this project.