There is water in Bangladesh. A lot of water. This is good for agriculture and good for people. However, in recent years it has led to increasingly serious problems, especially in the south of the country.
Jürg Keim, media spokesperson for UNICEF Switzerland and Liechtenstein, was recently in a slum in southern Bangladesh. In a conversation with Watson, he shares his experiences with us, talks about the problems on the ground and explains how UNICEF can specifically help in the slums.
The country that is in danger of sinking
To understand the problems in Bangladesh, first an understanding of the geological conditions is necessary. With an area of 147,570 km², the country in South Asia is 3.5 times larger than Switzerland, but has almost 20 times as many inhabitants: 171 million to be precise. This makes it one of the most densely populated countries in the world.
This is even more impressive when you consider that almost 10 percent of the land area is permanently covered by water. The reason for this is Bangladesh’s location on the largest river delta in the world: the Ganges Delta. The main rivers Brahmaputra, Ganges and Meghna flow together there and form an estuary area of about 100,000 km², which extends mainly across India and Bangladesh.
Nearly two-thirds of Bangladesh lies in this river delta. As a result, most areas are less than 10 meters above sea level and 10 percent of the land area is even 1 meter lower.
Since the soil in river deltas is considered very fertile, the delta in Bangladesh is densely populated and actively used for agriculture.
However, the proximity to water also has a downside: Bangladesh is mercilessly exposed to rising sea levels. According to scientists, Bangladesh could lose 17 percent of its land area by 2050. As a result, up to 20 million people would have to look for a new home.
Exposed to climate change
But that is just one of the consequences of climate change. While in the past Bangladesh was hit by cyclones every five years, tropical cyclones now hit the country annually and sometimes cause enormous damage, said media spokesman Jürg Keim.
The annual monsoon rains between June and mid-October also cause problems for the population. It is common for flooding to occur during this period, but its magnitude has increased in recent years.
This brings even more problems. Because where there is a lot of standing water, there are mosquitoes and where there are mosquitoes, there are communicable diseases. Bangladesh is currently experiencing an outbreak of dengue fever on a scale never seen before. Since the beginning of the year, the government has recorded 200,000 cases of dengue fever.
A thousand people have already died from the disease this year – 281 in all of last year. According to the WHO, mosquito-borne diseases are spreading faster and further due to climate change. According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Bangladesh ranks seventh among countries at extreme disaster risk. The people in the many slums in the delta area are hit the hardest.
The slum of the homeless
According to World Bank data, 52 percent of Bangladesh’s population lived in slums in 2020. A slum is a neglected neighborhood near the city that is often overcrowded and characterized by inadequate infrastructure.
As part of UNICEF’s Star Weeks, Jürg Keim visited two slums last June – one of which was the Bastuhara slum, where Bastuhara means something like “one who has lost his home”. This slum is one of the 300 other slums around the Khulna metropolis. Of the 1.5 million residents in the greater Khulna area, about a third live in the slums.
Every year UNICEF organizes together with the “Swiss Family”. Star weeks. This is a fundraiser by children for children that takes place from November 20th to Christmas. For twenty years, money has been raised for a new project every year. This year the focus is on children from Bangladesh.
Keim and his team reached Bastuhara within four hours (if traffic conditions were favorable, as he emphasized) from the capital Dhaka. Their journey coincided with the monsoon season, but the weather was favorable and they reached the slum in the sunshine. However, the monsoon had left its mark: parts of the slum were still flooded. After a rain shower, it can take days for the water to drain, Keim says.
While there is a shortage of water in other UNICEF locations such as Madagascar, there is too much in the slums around Khulna. At least the local infrastructure is not sufficiently developed, which causes all kinds of problems.
An outbuilding for 20 people
The people of Bastuhara have neither sufficient access to clean drinking water nor an adequate sanitation system. Two factors that have a negative impact on the health of slum residents.
Sanitary situation
In the Bastuhara slum, toilets – as we know them here – can only be found in very few homes. As Keim explains, there are mainly outbuildings, usually shared by about twenty people. A study by researchers from the Europan University of Bangladesh in the Bastuhara slum found that 58 percent of families use an outhouse with a tank and 17.33 percent use an outhouse over an open well. Others have neither. The researchers emphasize:
While in communal toilets human waste is collected in a small tank, in smaller outbuildings it goes straight into the canal or river. According to the researchers, one of the biggest problems is that most of the wells are located within 10 meters of the small pit toilets, leading to groundwater contamination.
Even though communal pit toilets are more hygienic in this respect, they pose other problems: during heavy rains they often overflow, spreading their entire contents onto the streets. This situation is further aggravated by poor drainage in the slum. Because people cannot yet properly dispose of their waste everywhere, they throw it in the canals, where it clogs the sewers. “There is plastic waste everywhere,” says Keim.
This makes the environment even more polluted and the water lingers longer. This leads to various diseases among slum dwellers, researchers from the European University in Dhaka discovered. A statistical survey over a three-month period among 800 slum dwellers who mainly used canal water for daily purposes showed: Of the 800 people, 200 suffered from diarrhea, 216 from dyssteria, 144 from jaundice and 240 from jaundice. . of Typhoid.
Jürg Keim also made this comment:
In addition to gastrointestinal problems, this also leads to skin rashes and parasites.
Access to water
There are three types of water in Bastuhara: ground, tap and surface water. Although surface water is abundant due to its location in the river delta, it is unusable for consumption and daily purposes. For washing and cooking, people need tap water, which is pumped from a silo through large pipes into the slums.
Meanwhile, the groundwater that people drink is pumped to the surface using water pumps. Although this is the cleanest water they have access to, it is not actually drinkable, explains media spokesperson Keim. As seawater levels rise and groundwater comes under pressure, it becomes salty. This causes all kinds of problems such as miscarriages, respiratory diseases and higher blood pressure.
Help where you can
Clean drinking water in the slums of Bangladesh is closely related to the quality of the sanitary system. For this reason they want to work as part of the UNICEF WASH program (Wowter, Sanimation and Hygiene) build small sewage treatment plants, Keim explains.
But that alone is not enough. The frequent flooding also requires logistical solutions: new toilets would be built higher so that they do not immediately overflow during heavy rain.
A tactic that some families also use in everyday life. They put their furniture on stones so that the wood does not rot. Because as Keim emphasizes: “Nothing is tight.”
More water purification systems should be installed to provide the population with drinking water. These filter the water to improve water quality. More pipe systems are also needed so that more families have access to clean water. Many have pumps or taps, but are only supplied with contaminated water.
The observations on site, the contact with the people, all this affects the media spokesperson:
He remembers a girl he met. It told him about his most valuable possession: school books. One of their biggest jobs is keeping them dry. The children, Keim says, despite everything, have dreams and hopes. Many of them want to become doctors or teachers. He finds this impressive, even though he fears that some of these children's dreams will remain unfulfilled.
It is precisely this fact that drives him:
The population feels this too. Their gratitude for the UNICEF operations on the ground is great and there is a sense of fulfillment in Keim's words when he says:
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
