A village in need of help

On Thursday we visited the rural village of Nalbunia. In this village of 26 households, there is no safe drinking water. The villagers drink pond water which hasn't been through any filtering process and is about 2km away. During the monsoon season, the mud comes up to their knees, making the walk to the pond extremely difficult and painful. When we asked about this pond, we were told how good it was compared to the saline water in the rest of the ponds. We met one lady, Openerai, who's husband was currently in hospital with typhoid, and heard of another member of the community who had died the previous year of a water related disease. Diarrhoea, dysentry and skin diseases were common place. It was upsetting to realise that these villagers felt that this dirty water which was making them ill was "the best" and was "very good water". Only 3 households had hygienic latrines, with the rest either using unhygienic ones or openly defecating on the side of the road or under bushes. I was also shocked by the lack of hygiene education and awareness. Only 5% of the village were aware of some hygiene practices, and when we asked about using soap to wash their hands, they told us that only people in cities and towns need soap, and that they didn't need to use it where they were. It really brought home to me how much a little education can go a long way.

Much of the village worked as shrimp farmers, as most of the fields surrounding them had become saline, meaning that it was no longer feasible to farm rice as they used to. They have noticed that there is less rainfall than there used to be, causing high salinity in the ponds. However, there were now 2 issues with the shrimp. A lot of the shrimp had got a virus meaning that it was less profitable than usual, and buying the shrimp in the first place had rocketed from 300 Taka to 1200 Taka. the shrimp ponds are owned by a land owner, and the villagers are paid 3000-4000 Taka a month to farm the ponds. This doesn't provide them enough to have 3 meals a day, let alone medical costs or schooling for their children. If they take out a loan, then it's usually from an NGO or from the bank and takes around 1-2 years to pay back, just to pay for something which we take for granted.

It was really tough to have seen in the previous few days what a difference WaterAid can make, and then to see villages where the situation is so bad where we haven't made a difference yet.