Daily Star 23/11/07
Dreadful canals still source of water
Pinaki Roy, from Bagerhat
A woman at Southkhali in the Sidr-affected Bagerhat collects highly polluted water for domestic consumption from a pond still containing dead chickens and fishes. PHOTO: PINAKI ROY
The man was holding a glass of reddish liquid with a stench to make any one wrinkle their noses in distaste.
“This is our drinking water. Now see for yourself what we are surviving on," said Altaf Hossain from Bogidoshghar, the last village before the Sundarbans in Bagerhat.
When asked where he got this water from, Hossain said it was from the canal. In the same canal floated dead bodies of people till they were buried. But dead chickens and fish still remain.
The dominant feature while travelling through the villages of Shoronkhola and Morelganj upazilas is the shocking lack of safe drinking water. People here are now struck with diseases like diarrhoea and dysentery as they are compelled to drink unsafe water.
Not a single tubewell exists in the villages of Dokkhin Southkhali, Bogi, Moddho Barisal, Purbo Barisal, Amragachhi, Fasiakhali, Chalitabunia, Khuriakhali, Terabeka under Sharonkhola and Morelganj upazilas.
A housewife in Southkhali was washing rice with water from the dirty pond water. When asked, Rahima Banu said “We are being given chira (flattened rice) and molasses to eat. How can we wash the chira without water? We are compelled to use this dirty water".
“What can we do, we have to eat something", she lamented.
She said they had received some water purification tablets given out by NGOs but it did nothing to clear the water or remove the stench from it.
Banu is lucky. She at least found a pot among the ruin on her homestead, to cook in. Others who were left with less are now unable to cook the rice they have received in relief. They also cannot boil the pond water for drinking.
In Chalitabunia, a village further down from the river bank, Ajit Halder complained that the workers from NGOs were not coming down as far as their village.
“So many here don't have people water purification tablets. I managed to drink a green coconut in the morning but no water,” he said.
At the villages of Morelganj, including Purbo Barisal, Moddho Barisal, inhabitants complained about the spread of diarrhoea among their families. They did not know how to help these patients.
Some NGOs have installed water purifying set ups and are trying to distribute drinking water among the residents of Bulbulaiya union. But the people in more remote areas, only reachable by boats, remain secluded from many relief efforts.
People there look out everyday for help to arrive.