Supplying 1000 families in Bangladesh with clean water

In Bangladesh, drinking water is extracted from groundwater outside the cities using hand pumps. More than 25 % of the wells exceed the WHO recommendation for arsenic (10 µg/l). Around 40 million Bangladeshis are affected by this and around 43,000 deaths are attributed to arsenic every year. Children and pregnant women are particularly at risk. Although this problem has been known since the 1980s, too little has been done to provide the population with clean water. As part of an initial project (https://www.betterplace.org/de/Projects/ 56254), we are already pursuing the goal of providing a total of 10,000 children in schools with access to clean water. 

Of course, children are not at school all day and also need clean water at home in order to stay healthy and attend school regularly. For this reason, families with children need a way to treat drinking water. The Heidelberg-based association AGAPE e.V., in cooperation with the University of Heidelberg (Biogeochemistry working group, Dr. Martin Maier) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Climate Change and Health working group), has established in several research projects that a large proportion of the wells in the Nabiganj region have microbial and geochemical (e.g. arsenic, iron) contamination, some of which is far above the WHO limits. 

The removal of arsenic from water is technically comparatively simple. In Bangladesh, a household filter is available on the market that reliably removes microbial contamination gravitationally with a ceramic filter. In collaboration with the University of Heidelberg (Biogeochemistry working group, Dr. Martin Maier), we have added an arsenic removal stage to this filter system. We now have 200 of these filters in operation and the families are very happy with the clean water, which means they are much less likely to fall ill. The children in particular benefit from this.

Especially in the remote, rural regions of Bangladesh, such as the villages in the Nabiganj region, these simple filter systems are the only way to have clean drinking water available every day. However, many families cannot afford the initial cost of €20. We therefore plan to provide 1000 of these water filters to families in need and also cover the maintenance costs for the first year (€5). The operation of the filters is to be financed in the medium term from the users' own funds. We need donations for the purchase and maintenance after the first year.