On the frontlines of climate change in the rural Southwest, the battle to cope with rising salinity, freshwater depletion and dwindling livelihoods continues. This is the 2nd part of a 5 part series.
With an aluminum jug in her hand, 27-year-old Hosneara walks almost two kilometers every morning through Dakkhin Kalikapur village in Koyra upazila of Khulna. Your destination: a shrinking pond that still has some murky water in it.
For all the latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. A thin, yellowish film floats on its surface. She sweeps the foam aside with her pitcher and begins filling it with the slightly greenish liquid.
“We filter the water with a cloth and then drink it. The pond is our only source of water. It is our lifeline,” said Hosneara, a mother of two, adjusting the jug on her hip.
All other nearby ponds have long since become brackish and the tubewells in the area spew salty water.
Her family needs two jugs of water a day, so she comes back in the afternoon for a second round. But when she stays at home due to illness, the family has to buy a glass of purified water for Tk 20, plus another Tk 20 for a rickshaw van.
“For poor people like us, buying water regularly is a luxury. We measure every drop,” Hosneara, whose husband works in a small tailor shop, told this correspondent in mid-October.
Their daily ordeal reflects the struggle of thousands of people on Bangladesh's southwest coast, where clean drinking water has become scarce due to rising salinity. Near the sea, Khulna and Satkhira have long battled saltwater intrusion caused by a combination of climate change and harmful human activities.
Rising sea levels, erratic rainfall, tropical cyclones, tidal surges, reduced river flow due to upstream diversion, and unregulated shrimp farming – where dams are cut to let in saline water – have all contributed to the contamination of vital water sources in these districts. Once reliable ponds have become brackish, and tube wells now pump out saline water.
A UNDP survey found that 73 percent of the population in five coastal upazilas – Koyra, Dakop and Paikgachha in Khulna and Assasuni and Shyamnagar in Satkhira – drink unsafe salt water.
Residents of these areas consume water with a salinity of between 1,427 mg and 2,406 mg per liter – well above the permissible limit of 1,000 mg, according to the survey, which was conducted in 2021 on 271,464 people from 66,234 households.
A FIGHT FOR EVERY DROP
In remote areas in Coy and Dakop upazilas of Khulna and Shyamnagar and Assasun of Satkhira, access to fresh water has become a daily struggle.
From early morning walks to long queues in the evening, residents – mostly women and girls – spend hours fetching water from ponds or sewage treatment plants set up by the government and NGOs.
However, communities use saline water from ponds and wells for bathing, washing and household chores, making them vulnerable to skin diseases.
Due to the excessive silt, clay and rock content in the subsoil, it is extremely difficult to install deep tube wells in these areas. Villagers rely on rainwater harvesting, pond sand filters (PSFs) and reverse osmosis (RO) systems. But many of the devices are out of service due to poor maintenance, rising salt levels and frequent power interruptions.
During monsoon, rainwater stored in tanks and containers provides temporary relief. But the daily struggle returns as soon as the rain stops. Salinity increases steadily from October to May, peaking in summer when shallow ponds shrink and water becomes cloudy.
“The little water that's left gives off a smell. We use fitkari.” [potassium alum] to purify the water after filtering it through a cloth. We cannot afford to cook it,” said Nargis, a housewife from Dakkhin Kalikapur village in Koyra upazila.
The pond once had a PSF, but it has been out of use for years. Nevertheless, in summer people from the surrounding villages come there to collect water in containers and glasses.
Shahnewaj Shikari, chairman of Moheshwaripur union municipality, said that around 80 percent of people in the union do not have access to clean drinking water. Two RO plants are out of operation while only three PSFs are still functional.
“We urgently need drinking water,” he said.
The situation is similar in Shyamnagar and Assasuni upazilas of Satkhira.
“We have so many ponds and canals around us, but we cannot drink water from any of them. The crisis continues throughout the year,” said Sathi, a 14-year-old from Paschim Porkatla village in Shyamnagar.
The eighth-grader at Burigoalini Darus Sunnat Dakhil Madrasa spends her entire afternoon fetching water for her family of four from a PSF plant three kilometers away.
With two jugs in hand, she walks for 30 minutes and then waits in line – sometimes even a few hours.
“I'm lucky if the factory isn't crowded as I can return home within an hour… But sometimes the wait takes hours.”
The physical toll is immense. “Carrying a jug on my hip and another in my hand causes severe pain. But I have to do it. If I don't, my family will have to drink brackish water,” said Sathi, whose father is physically challenged. And her mother works in a crab enclosure.
Residents say the water crisis worsened after Cyclone Aila in 2009, when tidal waves caused saline water to breach embankments and flood villages. The standing water continued for months, further increasing salinity in local water sources.
THE COST OF SURVIVAL
Many residents of these villages buy purified water from traders. For families living on daily wages, the cost is huge: Tk 0.50 per liter or Tk 10 for a 20-liter jar, excluding transportation costs. In comparison, Dhaka residents pay Tk 16 per 1,000 liters to the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority.
“We spend Tk 400 a month on water,” said Jahanara from Padmapukur village.
“After buying rice, vegetables and medicine, there is hardly any money left. Some days we drink less – not because we want to, but because we have to,” says Jahanara, whose husband is a day laborer.
To combat salinity and the shortage of clean drinking water, the government, with the support of NGOs and donor organizations through the relevant ministries, has implemented various projects in the coastal districts. This includes installing rainwater collection tanks, ROs and PSFs.
One such initiative is the 'Secure Water Supply in Coastal Areas' project through rainwater harvesting system being implemented by the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) in ten coastal districts including Khulna and Satkhira.
Launched in July 2022, the project aims to install 206,872 rainwater harvesting units – each consisting of a storage tank, filters and a distribution pipe – by December this year.
Project officials said 170,000 units have been installed in homes and distribution points so far. The tender for a further 8,000 units is ongoing.
However, many residents of coastal villages in Satkhira and Khulna have complained of nepotism in the distribution of rainwater harvesting facilities.
“Rainwater is our only hope but we have not yet received tanks to store it,” said Shahidul Islam Gazi of Dakkhin Kalikapur.
“We don't need the whole system. We just want a water tank to store rainwater during the dry season,” he added.
When contacted, project officials said there were cases of nepotism as the names of beneficiaries were chosen by local legislators and representatives of local government bodies.
“However, last year, many people in dire need of water also received the units… However, the demand for rainwater harvesting units is huge,” said one of the officials, requesting anonymity.
Shampa Goswami, executive director of PRERONA, a non-governmental organization, noted that the lack of clean drinking water was exacerbated by the lack of long-term planning.
Despite years of work by the government and NGOs, efforts remain fragmented. “Instead of small and scattered projects, the government, in coordination with all NGOs, should implement a comprehensive program that enables marginalized communities to store rainwater and use it during the dry season,” she said.
Prof Sharmind Neelorme, a climate change expert, said that beyond rainwater harvesting, the southwest region urgently needs a coordinated, integrated solution to its water crisis – one that includes desalination.
“It may be costly, but no expense exceeds the value of human life,” she said.
Experts say large-scale investments in rainwater harvesting and desalination at the community level could provide lasting relief. However, accurate mapping is essential to ensure such measures reach the most affected communities.
With the dry season approaching, Hosneara, Sathi and thousands like them know their daily walk will become longer. The ponds will shrink, the air will carry more salt particles, and the glasses that carry them will feel heavier.
[Our Khulna and Satkhira correspondents contributed to the report]