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STORY: BANGLADESH / CLEAN WATER
TRT: 3:52
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / BENGALI / NATS
DATELINE: 1- 3 SEPTEMBER 2013, BANGLADESH
1. Wide shot, men on boat
2. Med shot, men on boat
3. Various shots, men on boats
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ravenscroft, WASH Specialist, UNICEF Bangladesh:
"At this time of year, we're in the middle of the monsoon, there is water everywhere. Even in the rivers, where we are now, the water is fresh but if you come back in six months you'll find that the water around us is saline, people suffer terribly, they have to walk often kilometers to fetch water, or they are buying water which is very expensive. And often that water, not only is it expensive, but often it is not of good quality for drinking."
5. Wide shot, scientists from Dutch company Acacia Water and Bangladesh’s Dhaka University
6. Various shots, scientists talking
7. Close shot, drinking water
8. Med shot, scientists filling drinking water in glass
9. Close shot, scientist drinks the water and approves
10. SOUNDBITE (English), Dr Kazi Matin Ahmed, Dhaka University Geology Department:
"We are standing at a place where we started a new research in Bangladesh so we are using pond water and roof top rain water to store it underground. You can see the water trickling here, coming from that tank and we have sands inside the well so water is passing through this sand and we are storing it in the natural storage underground, so this is the thing we are doing. So why are we doing it? Because water quality here was not usable so because of infiltration of this rain water and pond water we are creating a fresh water buffer underneath. So, 3 years ago there was no source of drinking water here. Now people are getting water from this well here, and everyday few hundred people come here and collect their water for drinking purposes.”
11. Various shots, villagers drawing drinking water from the pump
12. Med shot, family takes drinking water in cans and pots on a cart
13. Wide shot, women filling water in pots
14. Close shot, woman standing in line for water
15. Wide shot, women filling water in pots
16. Med shot, Chandana Ray walking at her home with her pot
17. SOUNDBITE (Bengali) Chandana Ray, Gangaram Village Resident
"We used to drink water from another well but that water was dirty and made us ill. Now we only drink water from this new well. The water tastes good and we don't get sick anymore."
18. Wide shot, villagers at the test site, testing the drinking water
19. Close shot, official talking to villagers
20. Wide shot, women filling filtered water
21. Med shot, woman standing by tank
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ravenscroft, WASH Specialist, UNICEF Bangladesh:
"Our commitment is to build this scheme in a way that they can be managed by the communities and operate for 10-20 years until ultimately a public water supply comes but for many, many thousands of people in Bangladesh, perhaps millions of people, this is 1,2 or 3 decades away."
23. Wide shot, villagers are given an orientation and demonstration
24. Wide shot, women and children filling water
25. Close shot, water in a bottle
26. Med shot, girl drinking water
There's so much water in Bangladesh that it is hard to imagine that for much of the year a lot of it is undrinkable. When it is not raining the rivers in the coastal region become full of sea water, and the ground water is also heavily saline.
It’s a problem that UNICEF is determined to tackle
SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ravenscroft, WASH Specialist, UNICEF Bangladesh:
"At this time of year, we're in the middle of the monsoon, there is water everywhere. Even in the rivers, where we are now, the water is fresh but if you come back in six months you'll find that the water around us is saline, people suffer terribly, they have to walk often kilometers to fetch water, or they are buying water which is very expensive. And often that water, not only is it expensive, but often it is not of good quality for drinking."
Now UNICEF has teamed up with scientists from the Netherlands and Bangladesh to address this problem
They have devised a new system whereby rain water can be collected during the monsoon and then stored for later use, underground.
As it flows there, the drinking water displaces the saline ground water, and can be pumped out later on, after the monsoon
This is the first time this technique has been tried in such an environment
SOUNDBITE (English), Dr Kazi Matin Ahmed, Dhaka University Geology Department:
"We are standing at a place where we started a new research in Bangladesh so we are using pond water and roof top rain water to store it underground. You can see the water trickling here, coming from that tank and we have sands inside the well so water is passing through this sand and we are storing it in the natural storage underground, so this is the thing we are doing. So why are we doing it? Because water quality here was not usable so because of infiltration of this rain water and pond water we are creating a fresh water buffer underneath. So, 3 years ago there was no source of drinking water here. Now people are getting water from this well here, and everyday few hundred people come here and collect their water for drinking purposes.”
Not only is the water cleaner and safer than other sources but because it is held underground it is protected from the cyclones and floods that often hit this region.
Since 2010, 20 test sites have been established
The users says that the water is cleaner than the sources they had previously relied upon, and their families health has improved
SOUNDBITE (Bengali) Chandana Ray, Gangaram Village Resident
"We used to drink water from another well but that water was dirty and made us ill. Now we only drink water from this new well. The water tastes good and we don't get sick anymore."
UNICEF now wants more people to benefit and in September 2013 agreed with the government to extend the project to 100 locations
The next challenge is to work with communities to ensure that the system is sustainable
SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ravenscroft, WASH Specialist, UNICEF Bangladesh:
"Our commitment is to build this scheme in a way that they can be managed by the communities and operate for 10-20 years until ultimately a public water supply comes but for many, many thousands of people in Bangladesh, perhaps millions of people, this is 1,2 or 3 decades away."
That's a long wait for the children of the region, who can be the worst affected by poor water supplies
UNICEF hopes other organizations will now copy this technique, but not just in Bangladesh but in other countries also.
