Anjon Nayek: a tea plucker's story to clean water and decent toilets

Tea pickers are one of the most marginalised populations in Bangladesh. Brought over from India during colonial times to work in the tea plantations by the British, many of the traditions of bonded labour continue in the gardens to this day. 

Without safe water sources inside the gardens, workers mostly drink from open streams, which are contaminated from people going in the open around water bodies.

Anjon lost her husband to diarrhoea many years back, and feared for her children’s health till WaterAid and IDEA worked with the community to bring tube wells, and encourage the use of latrines.

"We are safe now with safe water", says Anjon.

Despite the struggles of daily life in the garden, one of her biggest fears is now a thing of the past.