‘Pani Apa’: How coastal women are leading climate adaptation

Bangladesh still finds it challenging to ensure safe and reliable drinking water for people. The problem of safe water is more acute in the coastal region. 

 

Frequent natural disasters and rising sea levels have contaminated water sources in the coastal areas and women have had to bear the brunt of it. This reality has forced them to trek miles to fetch fresh drinkable water.

 

But Rupali's ordeals have eased,thanks to the UNDP and Gender-responsive Coastal Adaptation (GCA) project, jointly funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Bangladesh government.

 

Under the GCA project, some 13,308 rainwater harvesting plants have been installed in the households of the two districts. Each tank can store 2,000 litres of rainwater. 

 

For the maintenance of the water tanks, the project has also employed 101 women, including Rupali, as “Pani Apas”. They work at the community level in five upazilas of Khulna and Satkhira, providing operation and maintenance services for the GCA-installed water tanks.