The right to safe water is recognized as a foundation of all other human rights. Bangladesh has made significant progress in universal access to improved water sources, with more than 97 but access to safe drinking water is still low at 34.6 per cent which reflected in the UNICEF report.
Yet Bangladesh is still the country with the largest proportion of people exposed to arsenic contamination in the world. Despite progress, 19.4 million people are still drinking water with a level of arsenic above national health standards. The presence of manganese, chloride and iron contamination also reduces the quality of drinking water. A third of the water points in Bangladesh has manganese levels above WHO guidelines.
Two out of five households, which is 38.3 percent of the population, in Bangladesh drink water from sources already contaminated with disease-causing bacteria and viruses. But due to poor hygiene practices at households, the number of people drinking water with microbial contamination jumps to 99 million.
Drinking water sources are also contaminated during frequent disasters such as floods, landslides and cyclones. Latrine’s overflow and contaminate water sources during these extreme events.
In both access and quality, disparity exists between rich and poor households. The rich are more likely to have drinking water on their premises, while poor families are forced to dedicate more time collecting water from public or other outside sources.
Barriers to safe drinking water, alongside sanitation, have significant impact on health, nutrition, education, protection and other outcomes for children and adolescents.
IMPACT INITIATIVE-IMI enables communities to participate in the wells design, construction, operation, and maintenance of community water systems. IMI believes engaging and empowering communities and increasing their participation,
especially that of women, children, and adolescents, can increase the sustainability of services for safe water, sanitation, and hygiene. IMI works with the government to provide sustained safe water access to 24 million people by 2030
Under WASH Program IMI
implements two types of programs. They are
ü Water Well
ü WASH Block for Academic Institutions
Water Well
There are two types of water well usually IMI implements in Bangladesh.
1. Shallow tube well
2. Deep tube well
Shallow Tube well: Considering the ground water level- some areas are eligible for shallow wells and usual depth of shallow wells are between 150-250 feet in the ground. Usual user of a shallow tube well are 4-5 families. Which meets the daily requirement of pure water for 20-25 people.
Deep Tube well: In coastal and arid regions, drinking water level is about 1000 to 1200 feet depth. The cost of installing these tube wells is higher than shallow. Usually, IMI installs deep tube well of pure water for 8-10 families. Which meets the daily requirement of pure water for at least 40-50 people.
Step by Step Implementation Process:
Implementation of tube well options will take place at house hold level in the community, schools, Institutions, public places of rural areas of Bangladesh.
Step 1: Need Identification
In order to identify the need of water supply facilities for a particular community and proceed for installation of suitable water options (different types of tube wells), the following activities have to be undertaken.
• Community Situation Analysis (CSA): CSA must be conducted at cluster/community with
facilitation by the respective frontline staff. The status of existing water supply facilities, besides other relevant information of the particular cluster/community should be documented during CSA using the format.
• The summary information of the water supply situation in the community obtained from the overall situation analysis may be presented similar to the format.
• Community Based Organization (CBO) formation: During the analyses of Water status for a particular community, IMI staff ignites the people towards promoting access to safe water. Then the community people feel to take initiatives collectively for overcoming the adverse Water situation. Thus, the CBO is formed.
Step 2: Application for Water Supply Facilities
• Based on the priority frontline staff will collect application from HH or community.
• The respective staff will assist the applicants to select the site for installation of proposed water supply option properly considering the site selection criteria in consultation with both male and female of CBO members.
Site selection criteria:
• A common, agreed and suitable place.
• Easy access can be ensured by users, especially women.
• Reasonable distance from each of the applicant households.
• Safe distance from nearby latrine.
• Not in front of comparatively well-off household among the applicants.
• Usual annual flood level to be considered.
Step 3: Site Verification for Water Supply Facilities
· The IMI staff will forward the Application Form to concern authority to be visited by the supervisory staff.
· During site verification by the Supervisory staff/ Engineer, the following aspects to be critically observed.
· Reliability of information as mentioned in the Application Form
· Social, technical and legal feasibility of the proposed site for the particular water supply option.
· Recommendation should be made by the Supervisory staff/ Engineer if all the conditions are full-filled.
Step 4: Approval for Water Supply Facilities
• Once the Application Form is recommended, it will be forwarded to competent authority for review and approval.
• The competent approving authority will review and approve/ not approve the Application preferably in a formal meeting.
Step 5: Installation of Tube-well
5.1 Procurement of materials
The respective department will be responsible for ensuring the quality of materials procured.
5.2. Selection of Boring Group/ Contractor
The Purchase Committee will identify locally available boring groups/ Contractor and select boring group/ Contractor on the basis of experience for installation of tube well.
5.3 Installation of Tube well
The tube well will be installed by the assigned boring group/ contactor as per the Contract
Agreement, during installation assuring quality by the Organization’s staff.
Step 6: Completion Report
Platform and Visibility: After installing the tube well, IMI builds the platform according to the donor’s design and places a signboard next to the tube well with the donor’s name and logo.
Water quality Test: After installing the tube well, IMI ensures arsenic test and quality of drinking water.
Completion Report: A ‘Completion Report’ containing detail information including tube well identification, Contract information, date of start and completion of installation, depth of tube-well, platform’s size & date of construction and other technical information of the tube well as prescribed report format of IMI should be filled-in by the respective staff and to be acknowledged by the Representative of applicant households.
Handing over and Reporting: Within three days of the completion of the project, IMI handing over the well to the respective CBO and provides a full report to the donor with all financial documents, photographs, videos, and case studies.