No more begging for water

Many slums in Bangladesh have little or no access to a safe water supply.

Credit: Brent Stirton

Amena, who has lived in the Baganbari slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh for twenty years, used to face a daily struggle to collect water - having to pay inflated prices to unscrupulous vendors or even begging for water. But now life has changed as WaterAid and its local partner have helped bring safe, clean water to Amena and her neighbours.  

Life is tough in Baganbari and to support her three youngest children Amena works as a day labourer whenever she can, earning around 30 to 40 taka (approximately 90 cents) per day. She usually works for eight months of the year, but this only brings in an annual income of Tk 10,800 and Amena needs Tk 12,000 a year to survive. Amena is a widow and because her eldest son was unable to help her, as his job as a cleaner of garbage trucks for Dhaka City Corporation only pays enough for him to be able to support his own family, she either had to borrow the difference or starve.

A major problem for Amena was finding water at an affordable price. Water vendors in the slum had made illegal connections to the city's main water supply and were selling it to the residents at an inflated cost. With an initial non-refundable security deposit of Tk 200 plus a monthly tariff of Tk 100 the price was prohibitive for many and Amena simply could not afford it. 

Often her only alternative was to beg for water from householders in Ibrahimpur, a kilometre away, but here her task was made even more difficult by the insults thrown at her from the locals. Occasionally, she collected water from the Battalion Police Mosque, despite being vilified regularly. However, most of the time, the mosque gates were locked. When all else failed Amena would be forced to collect her family's water from the local ditches.

Despite spending two to three hours collecting water every day, the two or three pitchers she collected would only be enough for her drinking and cooking needs, and she was unable to bathe regularly.

Now that Amena has a safe water supply, she no longer has to beg for her water.

Credit: WaterAid

But now this has all changed and those miserable days are gone. Amena no longer needs to beg for water door to door, nor collect unsafe water to drink.

WaterAid's partner, DSK, has worked with the community to set up a new water point in the slum so that they can easily collect water. It is managed by the community, who together with DSK, have calculated tariffs which will bring in enough to pay for attendants to keep the water point clean and well maintained. However the tariff is only for those who can afford it, and because of her low income, the Community Management Committee has waived the Tk 10 per month charge for Amena and told her that she can collect as much water as she needs to from the water point, explaining that the water point belongs to her as much as to anyone else.

Amena's life has been transformed. She no longer spends hours each day collecting dirty water nor does she have to suffer the humiliation of begging for water. She now does all her household chores using safe water and is able to shower regularly. And, because the water point is so close she saves hours each day collecting water, time which she can use for other more productive activities instead.