“We are very happy to see that women in such remote place are benefitting from drinking water from a plant set up with Swedish support. This is a good example of climate change adaption support being used effectively,” said H.E. Mr. Per Olsson-Fridh, Swedish Minister for Development Cooperation.

On 18 March, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation, Per Olsson Fridh visited Sutarkhali Union in Dacope Upazila of Khulna District of Bangladesh. He met local women who use water from a water treatment plant for drinking purposes because of climate change induced high salinity intrusion in water available in other sources. The plant was set up with the UNCDF-supported Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) phase II project (the Bangladesh phase is the Local Government Initiative on Climate Change-LoGIC).

Sutarkhali Union is situated by the side of the coast. Due to its geographical location, the union is very much exposed to cyclones, tidal surges, salinity intrusiosn, waterlogging and riverbank erosion. Because of the location, saline water can easily enter into the area with tidal surges and tidal waves. Salinity intrusion creates lack of pure drinking water in the union. Women go to distant places to fetch drinking water from ponds. Crop production is hampered significantly due to soil and water salinity.

UNCDF transfers Performance Based Climate Resilience Grants (PBCRGs) to climate vulnerable local governments as additional financing and complement the general grant resources provided by the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) to all Union Parishads (UPs). The specific purpose of the PBCRG is to help UPs make investments to strengthen resilience to climate and disaster impacts, covering infrastructure and public services for the poor.

To ensure safe drinking water for local people in the saline prone Suterkhali and Tildanga Unions of Dacope Upazila of Khulna district, the LoGIC project is supporting local governments to adopt some adaptive technologies. Rainwater harvesting is a cheap and nature-based technology with no negative impact on the environment. It can ensure supply of drinking water for several months if enough water is stored properly. However, considering that there may be variability in rainfall, the LoGIC project has decided to diversify the use of technology to ensure year-round supply of drinking water. Therefore, the project has installed treatment plant to supply pure drinking water free from microbes, excessive amount of salt and other solutes that are harmful for human health. Moreover, water treatment plant is a suitable solution in places where people are not culturally habituated to drink rainwater.

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