Living with thirst while surrounded by water
Cyclones, rising sea levels and salinity intrusion are steadily eroding freshwater sources along Bangladesh’s coast, turning everyday access to drinking water into a seasonal crisis
Throughout the dry season, every evening follows a familiar ritual for women living along Bangladesh's coastline, where access to safe drinking water remains a daily struggle for families beyond the reach of deep tube-wells and piped supply systems.
When the day's chores are finally complete and the kitchens fall quiet, one task still remains unfinished — collecting drinking water.
In Patharghata upazila, a char island in Barguna district, Lipi Akter, 40, shoulders this responsibility every day. As a housewife in a family of six, she walks nearly two kilometres carrying two aluminium pitchers, accompanied by her eight-year-old daughter, to collect the household's daily supply of potable water. Along crop fields and narrow paths, she is joined by neighbours carrying empty pitchers of their own, the metal clanging softly in the dusk.
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Out of the 11 villages in Patharghata upazila's Sadar Union, seven lie beyond the reach of state-provided water supply systems. These villages are surrounded by two mighty rivers — the Bishkhali to the east and the Baleshwar to the west — and the Bay of Bengal to the south.
Despite being encircled by water on three sides, this geographic vulnerability has resulted in an acute drinking water crisis, particularly during the dry season, when water levels in rain-fed ponds, canals, and other surface and groundwater sources drop sharply.
For Lipi and her neighbours, the struggle typically begins in November and continues until April or May, stretching from winter through the end of summer, as harvested rainwater stored in households gradually runs out.
As temperatures rise during peak summer, water bodies shrink, and stagnant surface water becomes covered with algae, rendering it unsafe for consumption. At the same time, salinity increases in river and canal water with every high tide.
"Whenever the dry season arrives, our struggle for water begins. What can we do? There's nothing else to be done. We have to walk a long way just to collect a single pitcher of water," said Lipi, who lives in Badurtala village.
According to a study by a local NGO, at least 350 families from three nearby areas depend on a decades-old pond in the Killa area of Badurtala village for drinking water. The pond is equipped with a pond sand filter (PSF) installed through NGO funding.
Residents of Badurtala, Charlathimara, Padma, Ruhita, and Gaharpur villages face an acute drinking water crisis every dry season. People in other unions, such as Char Duani and Kalmegha, experience similar hardships.
"Among Barguna district's six upazilas, Patharghata has a somewhat unusual geographical setting. Because of this, deep tube-wells cannot be installed in many of its unions, including Patharghata Sadar," said Md Ashrafuzzaman, district executive engineer of the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE).
"We installed a few tube-wells on a trial basis, but even after drilling to depths of 1,200 to 1,300 feet, we could not find a suitable aquifer with good-quality water," he added.
Lack of safe drinking water has been identified as the single most pressing issue in the daily lives of coastal communities.
In recent years, groundwater sources in coastal areas have suffered from multiple challenges, including arsenic contamination, falling water tables, rising salinity, and the absence of suitable aquifers.
Experts have emphasised the need for further excavation of large ponds and the expansion of rainwater harvesting. Without these measures, they warn, the crisis could deepen as climate change increasingly affects the south-western coastal region.
Among Barguna district's six upazilas, Patharghata has a somewhat unusual geographical setting. Because of this, deep tube-wells cannot be installed in many of its unions, including Patharghata Sadar. We installed a few tube-wells on a trial basis, but even after drilling to depths of 1,200 to 1,300 feet, we could not find a suitable aquifer with good-quality water.
A population struggling for drinking water
As the winter sun sinks over the Baleshwar River, women in Ruhita village prepare for a three-kilometre journey to a large pond — locally known as a deeghi — in a distant village. Some households, unable to spare a family member for such long journeys, resort to collecting water from nearby rivers or canals and drinking it after mixing potassium alum.
"Sometimes we have no option but to collect water from a nearby pond or the river because of the distance. Walking this far every day is not possible for women," said a housewife from the village.
In some areas, local vendors sell water transported by three-wheeler vans from PSF-equipped ponds, charging Tk50-60 per pitcher — prices that many families cannot afford.
"Approximately 25,000 people in Patharghata Union struggle with drinking water during the dry season. Without a dedicated water supply system, even daily drinking water comes with hardship," said Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Israt Jahan.
A Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) study shows that in some coastal areas, up to 97% of people collect drinking water directly from ponds, while others depend on canals and rivers.
A landscape shaped by natural disasters and climate change
The banks of both the Bishkhali and the Baleshwar rivers have been shaped by years of cyclones, sea-level rise, and storm surges. River erosion and salinity intrusion have become defining features along both riverbanks.
Cyclones such as Sidr, Aila, Amphan, and Mohasen drastically altered land formation in the region, increasing its vulnerability.
"Major cyclones, storm surges, and sea-level rise drive saltwater into coastal aquifers and surface water, contaminating traditional water sources such as ponds, shallow wells, and canals," said Professor Hafizur Rahman of the Department of Environmental Sciences at Jahangirnagar University.
Each year, river erosion consumes vast stretches of land along the riverbanks, despite government initiatives such as coastal plantations and embankment construction. These processes have created further complications, including blocked canals.
One large canal, locally known as Feharkhal, once flowed from the Bishkhali River and connected with the Haringhata River. After Cyclone Sidr in 2007, the canal shifted course across four villages before falling into the Haringhata River, where it was blocked by an embankment along the Bishkhali.
Villagers said the canal had been their lifeline for decades, used for collecting drinking water as well as for bathing, washing, and cleaning. Today, it is choked with thick layers of water hyacinth, further obstructed by informal barriers erected by locals for their own convenience.
The banks of the Baleshwar River tell a different story of land loss and water crisis.
"There are acres of land stretching from where the embankment stands now to nearly a mile beyond. All of it has been swallowed by the river," said an elderly fisherman from riverside Ruhita village.
"We used to collect water 10 or 12 years ago from two large ponds nearby, excavated by our ancestors. Those ponds are now gone, engulfed by the Baleshwar. You wouldn't find anything closer today," he added.
Multifold health issues
Drinking water from ponds, rivers, canals, and saline tube-wells exposes communities to multiple water-borne diseases and health complications.
"A large number of people come to our hospital with illnesses such as diarrhoea, dysentery, stomach cramps, and other conditions caused by pathogenic microorganisms in water," said Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Dr Nil Ratan Sarkar.
Hospitals see a surge in diarrhoea cases during summer, when it becomes the most common water-borne disease in coastal areas. A recent WaterAid study on WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) found that around 28% of households are affected by water-borne diseases, with 37.6% reporting diarrhoea, followed by fever (28%) and dysentery (25%).
"We receive hundreds of diarrhoea patients throughout the year. Even in winter, at least 15 patients are admitted daily," Dr Ratan added.
Fetching water over long distances is also physically demanding. Farida Begum, 65, from Gaharpur village, has carried water pitchers on her waist for years alongside other heavy household chores. She has suffered from severe back pain for the past two years as a result.
"I can no longer carry water the way I used to. My back starts hurting, and I often need to stop at least twice on my way," Farida said.
Dr Ratan explained that repeated heavy lifting places prolonged pressure on the musculoskeletal system, putting women in particular at risk of serious orthopaedic problems. "We strongly advise patients to avoid heavy lifting and working in low-lying positions," he said.
Initiatives taken, but for whom?
In the 1990s, Bangladesh's Ministry of Water Resources undertook initiatives to excavate large ponds — known locally as deeghi — across the south-western coastal region to improve access to safe drinking water.
Later in that decade, DPHE, with loan support from multilateral organisations including the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Danish International Development Agency (Danida), and UNICEF, installed deep tube-wells and PSFs near many of these ponds.
During the previous government's tenure, DPHE also launched a programme to distribute 3,000-litre rainwater harvesting tanks across 19 coastal districts. In practice, however, only a small number of households were able to access these tanks, as irregularities and corruption reportedly persisted at nearly every stage of distribution.
In some areas, ponds were re-excavated at high cost, yet the benefits were limited. Most PSFs are now non-functional, leaving communities once again without reliable drinking water sources.
Investigations found that residents seeking a water tank were often forced to pay between Tk3,000 and Tk10,000 to local public representatives and political leaders — in addition to the officially fixed support fee of Tk1,750 and transport costs. Political affiliation, personal connections, or family ties frequently became the decisive factors in receiving a tank.
Despite warnings painted on the tanks stating that "sale or purchase prohibited", the illegal practice continues openly.
"During the Awami League government, local political leaders demanded Tk5,000 from us if we wanted a tank. We paid the money, but never received one. It wasn't just me — many others were treated the same way. Some people got tanks; we didn't," said a resident of Badurtala.
At present, both local and international NGOs have initiated programmes to promote rainwater harvesting and install PSFs in areas where deep tube-wells are not feasible. However, these interventions come with strict eligibility criteria.
In 2024, for example, BRAC launched a three-year project under its Climate Change Programme, distributing 3,000-litre water tanks to selected families and installing rainwater harvesting booths in four unions of Patharghata upazila. Yet the scale of the intervention remains far below demand.
"We provide tanks to families who live on legally owned land and whose houses can support installation. We are also setting up community-based rainwater harvesting booths," said Mohammad Asaduazzaman, project operations manager of the programme.
Despite both government and NGO efforts, a significant portion of the coastal population continues to struggle for drinking water, as distribution remains uneven and exclusionary.
"People living inside the embankment have received a lot of support from the government and NGOs, but we haven't received anything at all," said a family living outside the Baleshwar River embankment.
UNO Israt Jahan acknowledged the gap. "We are aware of their suffering. Once a new government is formed, we will try to facilitate initiatives for the deprived population," she said.
