3rd December - Kalshi Takerbari Slum in Dhaka (Post Intervention)

Local kids swamp fellow WaterAid
 supporter Jez Heath

On the 29th November we visited the Aziz Bosti (pre intervention) slum, so it made sense to conclude our field visits at the Kalshi Takerbari slum to witness the transformation it had undertaken following the intervention of WaterAid's partner organisation DSK. Kalshi is a warren of narrow alleyways teeming with inquisitive kids peering at us from every doorway and corner, and by the time I was led to the meeting place at the community hall I was completely disorientated!


As per other post intervention slums, the community had formed "CBOs" (Community Based Organisations) to identify the water and sanitation needs of the area. They did this by mapping each household in the area and discovered that the 510 households had 16 non-hygienic toilets (i.e. hanging latrines overlooking open water as seen in Slumdog Millionaire!) and 23 illegal water connections between them (serving a population of circa 2,300 people).

Kalshi Takerbari CBO pore over their community map

An illegal connection is where the local water authority view the settlement as transient, and they'll only officially supply water to areas with a legal status. This means the community here were fully aware that at any given time their clean water could be cut off, and in the meantime had to pay over the odds for access to the illegal connections run by shady "musclemen" i.e. criminals. As for the sanitation, the committee members confirmed their community suffered from poor health (dysentery, worms, skin diseases etc) and in order to get treatment families had to spend a significant amount of their incomes on treatment, which they could ill-afford.

In order to address this situation, WaterAid's partner DSK began the slow process of building up a trusting relationship between the water authority and the community group to try and get legal connections, and finally by acting as guarantors the breakthrough was made in 2005, and by June 2010 27 water pumps had been completed and every household has access to a clean and legal water supply, and 24 community toilets have addressed the sanitation needs.

A member of the CBO proudly displays the
latest monthly meter bill.

Can pay, will pay!


As a consequence of this, this community are probably the very first people I've ever met happy to receive and pay their water bills,  I explained via an interpreter that in the UK when people receive a water bill they're not quite so enthusiastic! As you can see in the pics below the water authority have installed clean water pumps, toilets and the familiar sight of water meters to track usage. There is no comparison to this slum and the situation in the Sona Mia'r slum (which we visited on 29th November).

Tubewell hand pump (click for video)

Water meter chamber

Every household in the community contribute towards the installation costs (a tubewell/water pump costs 47,000 TK/£426, 10% is paid by the community) and the monthly meter bill, and in order to gauge how much individual households can afford to contribute the following categories are applied:

This notice on a latrine wall proves the community
contributed to installation & maintenance costs.

Household Income Categories

• Category A = able to afford 3 meals a day and children in school
• Category B = 3 meals children not in school, no savings
• Category C = Unable to afford 3 meals a day, may needs loans to meet needs
• Category D = Destitute, relies on loans & begging, cannot afford to eat properly

* note there are no Categories A in Kalshi Takerbari.

From destitute to Category C...

In order to understand what the improvements detailed above actually mean to individual households we took another stroll through the maze like alleyways to Ruma's house (Ruma is the CBO's Treasurer). Ruma is an example of how women are so empowered by the work WaterAid do in that now she has access to clean water nearby she does not have to queue for 2-3 hours during the night for water (she used to work during the day in a garments workshop) to secure enough water for her household of 7 people.

Ruma in her fabric shop

With the time she's saved Ruma has worked hard to improve the lot of her family, she works at her home to produce sanitary napkins to sell within the community, and has her own shop nearby selling fabric. Indeed Ruma proudly explained that following the intervention to provide water & sanitation, due to her hard work and money saved in medical bills her household had moved from category 'D' to 'C' (see above for the definition of income categories). Is there a better example of the value of the fundraising we do in the UK?

Note that Ruma has achieved this improvement in living standards due her own hard work, WaterAid gave the opportunity by providing clean drinking water and removing the prevalence of disease, and her involvement in the community group gave her the sense of empowerment. In fact Ruma is confident that with 2 years her family will be in category B.

Finally, as we were about to reluctantly leave her home, she insisted on telling us how grateful she was for our efforts in supporting WaterAid, and how even though we live so far away and our lives are so different we had ensured she and her family had benefited so much.