Climate change in south-west Bangladesh is linked to even small changes in sea levels that had forced villagers rely on monsoon rains for their drinking water or risk sickness by drinking from contaminated and salty ponds. Grants delivered using the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility have enabled local governments to provide water treatment plants to supply communities with clean drinking water to hundreds of families.

The water treatment facilities have transformed the lives of many local women who used to walk long distances to gather water for their families when the monsoon stores of water ran out and had to care for sick family members who became sickened by the brackish and unhealthy water.

“We float over water like a hyacinth, we must constantly fight for survival. We are in a constant battle with water,” said Nomita Roy, Kalabogi Village Suterkhali Union in south west Bangladesh. “Our main crisis is this water crisis.”

LoGIC project is supporting the local governments to adopt some adaptive technologies to improve access to clean drinking water and boost communities’ climate resilience. Along with water treatment plants, which charge users a small fee to fill their water containers with purified water, other actions include rainwater harvesting and storage systems.

Local Government Initiative on Climate Change, (LoGIC) project, led by the Local Government Division of the Ministry of Local Government Rural Development and Cooperatives, is a joint 4-year initiative of the Government of Bangladesh, UNDP, UNCDF, the European Union and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). LoGIC is phase II of UNCDF’s global Project Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) in Bangladesh.

For more information about LoCAL in Bangladesh:

THANKS TO: