Press Release
28/03/2024
It’s high time that WASA focuses on the coastal areas to address the water Crisis: WASA Chairman
Chairman of the Dhaka WASA board Dr. Sujit Kumar Bala said that it is time to look at the water issues of the coastal areas.
He made this comment on the morning of March 28 (Thursday) at a discussion program and photo exhibition organized by the ‘Community Based Resilience, Women’s Empowerment and Action (CREA)’ Project of Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) on the occasion of World Water Day. The theme of the event was “Access to safe water in climate vulnerable areas: A gender perspective.”
Dr. Sujit Kumar Bala said, ‘There is a lack of availability of fresh water in the coastal areas. Water scarcity is aggravated during floods and cyclones. Efforts are being made to deal with this crisis using nature-based solutions, however, it is not enough. Although WASA is Dhaka-centric, I think now is the time to look at the water-related problems of our coastal areas.’
Hasin Jahan, Country Director of WaterAid Bangladesh, presented the keynote at the event. She presented, “Only 15% of the people in the whole country have access to piped water supply and 60% of the people have the benefit of safe water. In addition, 26 million people are exposed to very high salinity in shallow groundwater. The risk of infant mortality also increases due to the consumption of excess salt water during pregnancy.
‘Women are globally called ‘water managers’ due to their greater involvement from water collection to usage and supply. Thus, women cannot participate in income-generating and agricultural activities while devoting extra time to collect water. As a result, they are lagging financially.”
M. A. Rashid, Executive Director of NGO Forum for Public Health, Sharmistha Debnath, Executive Engineer of the Department of Public Health Engineering, Mostafizur Rahman, Program Officer of the Development Cooperation Section of the Embassy of Sweden, Dharitri Kumar Sarkar, Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Md Robiul Alam, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Water Resources also spoke on the occasion.
Two women suffering from a safe water crisis in the CREA project implementation areas joined virtually and shared their experiences. They highlighted the unavailability of safe drinking water due to salinity, difficulty in collecting it, the outbreak of various diseases due to the use of unsafe water, and consequently, the increase in domestic violence.
Shaheen Anam, Executive Director of MJF, who moderated the overall event, called for a collective action saying, ‘Women are subjected to sexual harassment in various ways while providing water for their families. Access to safe drinking water is a human right. Clean water is a human right, but the plight of women is often overlooked.
‘We want a collaborative approach to solve the crisis. The government alone cannot create solutions to this. So, the private sectors and NGOs like us have to find a way to work together with the government.”
After the discussion, Shaheen Anam showed the guests around the photo exhibition. The theme of the exhibition was ‘Climate Change and Vulnerability of Women’.
For further information
Nusrat Zabin Biva
Media and Communication Officer
Manusher Jonno Foundation
Cell: 01851861914
Email: biva@manusher.org
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