Water solution: How sustainable are the Reverse Osmosis plants in Bangladesh’s salty coast?

Firoza Begum, a young housewife and mother to a little daughter from Joymoni village in Chila Union, Mongla, used to rely on salty pond water for survival. At times, they didn't even have access to drinkable water.

Similar to many areas along the coastal belt of Bangladesh, fresh drinkable water is a rare commodity in Firoza's village. The available water is predominantly saline. Consequently, untreated water often leads to common diseases. However, Firoza remarked, "At some point, my body adjusted to the pond water." 

But such an adjustment couldn't apply to her newborn baby.

Soon after her baby was born, a Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant funded by PKSF was established by HEED Bangladesh near her house. Here, water is available for purchase at Tk0.5 per litre.

"Each morning, I bring a pitcher of water for Tk10, and then another pitcher for Tk10 in the afternoon," she shared with The Business Standard on a recent Ramadan day. 

"On regular days, I bring about two to three pitchers per day." 

Firoza isn't certain about the exact volume of water her pitcher holds. Instead of paying per litre at Tk0.5, women in her village pay per pitcher. 

In a bid to provide the coastal people with desalinated water, 83 such Reverse Osmosis plants have been installed across five coastal districts – Bagerhat, Barguna, Khulna, Patuakhali and Satkhira. And four more projects are underway. Several NGOs are implementing the projects, funded by the PKSF. 

During the dry season, the combination of increased sea levels and decreased freshwater flow from upstream results in the conversion of freshwater into saline water along the coastal areas of Bangladesh. 

To address water scarcity, coastal residents collect rainwater during the monsoon season. However, their storage capacity is limited, forcing them to rely on pond water, which is also high in salinity, for household tasks.

Consequently, there is a high demand for RO plants due to their ability to treat water consistently throughout the year. In regions heavily affected by freshwater scarcity, these plants are also providing water to businesses and institutions. 

"I take around 3,000 litres of water from the RO plants to the Balurghat project area where many labourers are based," said Roni Gazi, a distributor of the RO plant in Joymoni village. 

These RO projects have been at work on Bangladesh's coast for the last few years. 

We reached out to several implementing NGOs.

How the RO plants work 

Nabolok is one of the NGOs implementing the RO plants with PKSF funds. Its executive director Kazi Rajeeb Iqbal explained to the TBS how the RO plants work, involve and benefit the communities across the coastal belt. 

 They have seven RO plants in Mongla. They have formed seven committees, including local authorities and a representative from Nabolok to carry out the RO project. 

"We only work to guide them [committee]. Say it is the president or treasurer [of the committee], they come from local authorities. The plants have been handed over to them. They have separate bank accounts. They register members and operate the facilities," explained Rajeeb. 

The members in their facilities are admitted with a Tk200 entry fee and they collect water based on monthly payment, Rajeeb said. 

Each of their plants can serve more than 300 members as the plant can withdraw more than 8,000 litres of water per day. Each member can draw 15 litres of water per day. The managers' payment, membrane depreciation cost, and other costs are taken from member fees. 

"The water demand is very high, especially in the dry season," he said.

Dry season means March, April, May and June when the residents' water reservoir finishes and it doesn't rain enough to store water. 

Are the RO plants really a sustainable solution to the water crisis in Bangladesh's coastal areas? "At this moment, this is the only solution which can serve 12 months. If people can pay, and they have the mentality to pay for it, this is the best solution. 

It's only negative side is you have to pay for it," Rajeeb said.  

But he admitted the challenges with the maintenance cost, which depends on the functionality of the membranes of the machines and how much electricity is being used - as it requires high voltage power. 

How sustainable is the solution?

Adwaita Kumar Biswas is the Central Manager of the Microfinance Program of HEED Bangladesh. They have seven RO plants in Dacope and Mongla.  

Their facilities are five to one years old. They have also witnessed massive water demand in these areas. However, since the project itself is not profit-oriented, they have been exposed to the challenges of maintaining the facilities in the long run. 

"In every one and a half or two years, the membrane has to be fixed, changed or backwashed. The filters for saltwater have to be changed very frequently. Since water is very salty, the machines often become nonfunctional," Adwaita Kumar said. 

"Fixing these machines requires a lot of money. Each machine has three membranes and three vessels. These are very pricey – more or less Tk55,000. Every two years, each machine requires at least Tk1.5 lakh to fix. There is no alternative but to fix the damage done by the salt water. The iron level is over 15 and the typical water quality is very bad. Heavy pressure goes into these machines," he added.  

Another challenge, he said, is the manpower for fixing the technical problems with the RO plants is not widely available – only a few companies provide services to fix the RO plants. The machineries too are not immediately available. 

If all the facilitating NGOs had one or two of their own good mechanics, the cost could have been minimised "because, at present, the hired mechanics charge Tk8-10,000 even for a small issue," he said.  

Given that scenario, could this be a long-term solution in our water-poor coast? 

"It can be a long-term solution but you have to spend money. You cannot sell water for Tk1. The people are poor here. But on the other hand, you cannot sustain this with TK0.5 either. So, you need to have a subsidy," Adwaita Kumar replied.  

People do not trust surface water 

Nowabenki Gonomukhi Foundation (NGF) runs a total of 17 water treatment plants in Shyamnagar, Koyra and Paikgacha Upazilas of Khulna and Saatkhira. They have seven RO projects allocated in recent years, but they have been running around 10 desalination plants since 2014. 

Abdul Hamid, the Project Coordinator of NGF told TBS that although the RO projects were supposed to draw water from open sources and treat them, that has not been actually happening because the locals don't trust water from the open sources.  

"We are supposed to use surface water but we are using underground water. The local people don't want to drink surface water. As they see waste, dead chicken, duck or shoes floating in the water, they won't want to drink it even though the water is treated," Hamid said.  

"So, what we did, we established deep tube wells in all our plants. So, the RO plants necessarily turned into the old desalination plants as we pump up the water and desalinate them. We have seven (RO) plants, and all run like this. We have mobilised but couldn't convince people to drink surface water," he said. 

"We didn't analyse what ingredients underground water has and what the surface water has, but what we see is salinity is higher in underground water than surface water, which causes trouble for my membrane and machinery. 

The surface water has less salinity, which is better for RO machineries," he added. 

However, he is optimistic about the overall demand generated by the RO plants. 

"It is doing well. Almost 70% of our plants are operating successfully," he said. 

Philip Biswas, Executive Director of Rural Reconstruction Foundation (RRF) said they have eight water treatment plant projects, which started some four years ago. Among them are a few RO plants as well. He said they have also witnessed public mistrust of the surface water. 

It's like a taboo, he said. 

Dr Nomita Halder, Managing Director of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), was contacted regarding the issues raised by the implementing NGOs. 

"This has come to our attention. We have to take another project to change the mindset of the people," Dr Nomita said. 

Although water demand on the coast exists all over, the PKSF chooses the location for the plants carefully, she said. "We need an open water body; we will take water from one open water reservoir and release polluted water in another open water reservoir after filtration. We have issues with groundwater as well since drawing groundwater is not allowed. We have to look into this."

She, however, emphasised that the plants are providing good results and people are being benefited. 

'Small plants, small entrepreneurs could be a better solution'

The RO plants at the moment can draw as much as 8,000-10,000 litres of water, which targets more than 300 families each. 

But this results in facilities being too far from the members' houses. 

"The water demand is high, and the demand will grow. Once they become used to drinking this water, they won't drink the pond water anymore. But to ensure its sustainability, these plants should be established at a small entrepreneurial level. 

For us [as an] organisation, the pressure is getting high as we provide for too many," Adwaita Kumar said. 

"Our machines are large as they produce around 8,000 litres. But on a small scale, if local entrepreneurs produce, suppose 500 litres, the nearby family can have them, and they don't have to walk a long distance for water. 

Water demand is high. You cannot meet the demand with six to seven plants. One upazila is a large area. Once they become used to drinking this water, they won't drink the pond water anymore, and the demand will grow," he added. 

Nomita Halder, however, said that they don't find enough proper entrepreneurs to establish more plants. 

"As we don't find an adequate proper contractor in the coastal belt, we cannot get to newer sites because our project is being held hostage to a particular individual who, after receiving the products, is dillydallying the implementation. 

"We have come across some obstacles like these which we are looking into, however, besides this, this project is largely successful," Nomita Halder said.