More than 500 ethnic populations have started enjoying arsenic-free safe drinking water in Kalna village for the first time as two hand-driven tube-wells were commissioned there around one month ago which are capable to provide water round the year.
After facing a long lasting trouble in fetching drinking water from far away the households of the remote village under Talanda Union of the district’s Tanore Upazila are now more or less happy with the water privilege.
They are also using five pit latrines for the first time and becoming habituated with sanitation practice. Thereby, they become aware on the issue that safe water and sanitation is very vital to free them from waterborne diseases as many of them suffer from diseases because of their ignorance about healthcare, lack of adequate sanitation and safe water facilities.
In nature, the area is dried where ensuring hundred percent safe drinking water supplies and sanitation to the ethnic communities is a big challenge, says Akheruzzaman Hannan, Chairman of Talanda UP while talking to BSS here Monday.
He views the installed two tube-wells and 10 pit latrines aren’t sufficient for the 155 households of around 600 population.
In an effort to ensure the rights of safe water and sanitation to some extent, a four-year project titled “Enhancing Governance and Capacity of Service Providers and Civil Society in Water Supply and Sanitation Sector” is being implemented there since January last.
Rajshahi Social Development Programme (RSDP) and NGO Forum for Public Health are jointly implementing the project with financial support of European Union.
As there was no tube-well and sanitary larine, the households had to use pond water for drinking, washing and cleaning purposes and to excrete in the open field polluting the environment, Sundari Hembrom, 30, a member of the community, said. -BSS
