532 © IWA Publishing 2013 Journal of Water and Health | 11.

3 | 2013

Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal

areas of Bangladesh
Md. Atikul Islam, Hiroyuki Sakakibara, Md. Rezaul Karim
and Masahiko Sekine

ABSTRACT
Md. Atikul Islam (corresponding author)
In the coastal areas of Bangladesh, scarcity of drinking water is acute as freshwater aquifers are not
Environmental Science Discipline,
available at suitable depths and surface water is highly saline. Households are mainly dependent on Khulna University,
Khulna-9208,
rainwater harvesting, pond sand filters and pond water for drinking purposes. Thus, individuals in Bangladesh
E-mail: atikku_es@yahoo.com
these areas often suffer from waterborne diseases. In this paper, water consumption behaviour in
Hiroyuki Sakakibara
two southwestern coastal districts of Bangladesh has been investigated. The data for this study were Masahiko Sekine
Graduate School of Science and Engineering,
collected through a survey conducted on 750 rural households in 39 villages of the study area. The
Yamaguchi University,
sample was selected using a random sampling technique. Households’ choice of water source is 2-16-1 Tokiwadai, Ube,
Yamaguchi 755-8611,
complex and seasonally dependent. Water sourcing patterns, households’ preference of water Japan

sourcing options and economic feasibility of options suggest that a combination of household and Md. Rezaul Karim
Department of Civil and Environmental
community-based options could be suitable for year-round water supply. Distance and time required Engineering,
Islamic University of Technology,
for water collection were found to be difficult for water collection from community-based options.
Gazipur - 1704,
Both household and community-based options need regular maintenance. In addition to installation Dhaka,
Bangladesh
of water supply facilities, it is necessary to make the residents aware of proper operation and
maintenance of the facilities.
Key words | Bangladesh, coastal areas, rural households, water supply

INTRODUCTION

In Bangladesh, 73% of the population lives in rural areas Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is a promising way to sup-
and tubewell water is the primary source of drinking water plement the water supply in areas where surface and
for the majority of rural people (WHO & UNICEF ). groundwater are scarce and the existing water supply
Tubewells have been installed at various depths, depending system is inadequate to meet demand. Consequently, RWH
on availability and the level of groundwater. However, in the is becoming very important in the coastal areas of Bangla-
coastal areas of Bangladesh, the development of a depend- desh. In these areas, the government is currently promoting
able water supply system is limited because suitable household and community-based alternative water supply
freshwater aquifers are not available at suitable depths options, such as household-based rainwater harvesting sys-
(Kamruzzaman & Ahmed ; Islam et al. ). There tems (RWHSs), community-based rainwater harvesting
are certain areas in the coastal districts where both shallow systems (CRWHSs) and pond sand filters (PSFs). In case of
and deep tubewells are not useful due to high salinity in RWHSs, the water collection tanks are mainly burnt clay
groundwater. In many settlements in these areas, rainwater pots (motkha), plastic tanks and ferrocement tanks, which
is preserved in natural or man-made ponds and collection of are constructed on the surface. Plastic and ferrocement
rainwater is the only source of drinking water (Kamruzza- tanks are considered as improved tanks and their capacity
man & Ahmed ; Alam et al. ). mainly ranges from 1,000 to 3,200 L. In case of CRWHSs,

doi: 10.2166/wh.2013.215

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 533 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

larger sub-surface reservoirs (ranges from 10,000 to 25,000 L) suggestions for their future safe water supply. The findings
made of reinforced cement concrete or ferrocement are used of the present study may help in planning and implemen-
for storing rainwater. The PSF is a manually operated treat- tation of improved water supply facilities not only for the
ment unit based on the principle of slow sand filtration. coastal areas in Bangladesh, but also for other coastal
Water is pumped up from the rainfed pond by a hand areas with a similar hydro-geological situation.
pump and is poured into a filter chamber filled with sand.
So, the treated water quality depends on the efficiency of fil-
tration system and also on the raw water quality of the pond. METHODOLOGY
However, few households have community-based water
supply facilities within a short distance. Water scarcity The study was conducted in the southwest coastal areas of
causes great hardship to families, in particular women, who Bangladesh, particularly Mongla and Dacope upazilas
usually spend several hours each day collecting water from (sub-districts) of Bagerhat and Khulna districts, respectively.
distant sources. Substantial queuing time at community These areas were selected because: (i) neither shallow or
water collection points also restricts the collection of safe deep tubewells are useful in these areas due to salinity; (ii)
water (Sullivan et al. ). So, people generally use rainfed most of the communities depend on multiple sources of
pond water during the dry season because many households drinking water; and (iii) convenient transportation for col-
do not have a large tank to store sufficient rainwater for the lecting data. A questionnaire survey was administered to
whole year. Previous studies have shown that pond water gather detailed information on the water consumption be-
in Bangladesh is heavily contaminated with faecal coliforms haviour of the coastal people. The data included: socio-
and pathogenic bacteria (Albert et al. ; Alam et al. ). demographic information on the respondents; their water
Over the years, the local people of the southwestern collection and consumption behaviour; information on
coastal areas of Bangladesh have adapted their water con- maintenance of water sources; and the preference of water
sumption behaviour because of varying levels of water collection options. The draft questionnaire was pre-tested
availability. To ensure safe sources of water is one of the in villages of the two districts covered in the study. The ques-
most important issues for human health and sustainable tionnaire was revised after two rounds of pre-testing. The
socio-economic development in these areas. Planning for target population of this study was individual households.
effective water supply in the rural coastal Bangladesh The household was considered as a unit of analysis because
requires understanding of the existing water consumption water supply issues were concerns of the entire household.
patterns. The volume of water consumed is an essential Households were selected from 39 villages in the study
element in quantitative microbial risk assessment area by using systematic random sampling technique.
(QMRA). In the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Qual- Respondents were selected from the list of residents from
ity (WHO ), the Water Safety Plan is the central each village obtained from Union Parishad office. Ten per
approach to safeguarding the health of the drinking water cent of the households in each village were selected ran-
consumer. Within a Water Safety Plan, QMRA can be domly. From each selected household, one woman was
used to assess the microbial safety of drinking water. selected as the sample. Only the female participants were
QMRA has been suggested by various authors as the scien- selected because they are mainly responsible for collecting
tific basis for assessing risks of pathogen exposure (Teunis drinking water in the household. In Bangladesh, 90% of
et al. ; Haas et al. ; Medema et al. ). When the women are responsible for the collection of water
assessing the exposure to pathogens through drinking while men, girls and boys comprise 5, 4 and 1% of the
water, both the concentration of pathogens in drinking water collectors, respectively, when drinking water is not
water and the volume of drinking water consumed are available on their own premises (WHO & UNICEF ).
important parameters. Therefore, the main objectives of In the reconnaissance survey, we also found that women
this study were: (i) to identify water consumption behaviour are primarily responsible for the collection of household
of a rural salinity-affected population; and (ii) to make drinking water in the study area. When any household

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 534 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

member refused to participate, the nearest house was con- Table 1 | Respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics

sidered. The total number of samples in this study was 750.

Characteristics Descriptive n ¼ 750 Percentage
To quantify the daily water consumption by direct drink-
Age <30 205 27.3
ing, a method similar to the Cup Method (Watanabe et al.
30–40 302 40.3
) was used, in which direct water consumption is esti-
>40 243 32.4
mated by asking the respondent how many cups of water
Education No education 245 32.7
are consumed in a day. The water consumption data of the
Primary 217 28.9
respondent herself and the members of her respective
Secondary 273 36.4
household were collected. In the study area, all the individ-
College 15 2.0
uals have been found to have their own cup with which they
Family size 1–4 people 404 53.9
drink water. However, in some cases, a single cup was
5 346 46.1
shared by two or more members of the same family. The
Main occupation Agricultural 277 37.1
cup used for drinking water was identified for each individ-
(missing ¼ 3) Small businesses/trade 175 23.4
ual and the capacity of the cup was measured using a Daily labourer 224 30.0
standard-sized glass of 250 ml. The number of cups Employment/teacher 71 9.5
marked was multiplied by the capacity of that person’s cup Average monthly <3,000 398 53.1
to estimate the water consumption rate. income (Tk.) 3,000–5,000 227 30.2
Secondary data on the economic cost of the water >5,000 125 16.7
supply options were obtained from the Department of Note: Tk., Bangladesh Taka, 1 USD ¼ Approximately 78 Tk.

Public Health Engineering (DPHE) office. The DPHE is

responsible for water supply in the rural areas of Bangla-
small businesses (23%), were daily labourers (30%) or in
desh. The construction and maintenance cost of RWHSs
paid employment (10%). Approximately 53% of the partici-
and PSFs were collected to calculate the economic cost of
pants reported monthly family income of less than Tk. 3,000
the systems.
(approximately USD 39).
The questionnaire was administered face-to-face by the
first author and eight trained surveyors (graduate students
Drinking water sources and pattern of water use
of Environmental Science Discipline at Khulna University,
Bangladesh) who are fluent in the local language. The data
Drinking water sources available in the study area are pre-
were collected during March 2009 and March 2010. Ana-
sented in Table 2. The RWHS is the only household-based
lyses were done using Statistical Package for Social
water supply option available in the study area. Water sourcing
Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0.
patterns of the households are presented in Table 3. The survey

Table 2 | Drinking water sources available in the study area

RESULTS
Source of original
Drinking water source water Level of option
Socio-economic and demographic profile of the study
Household-based rainwater Rainwater Household
population harvesting system based
Community-based rainwater Rainwater Community
The socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the harvesting system based
respondents are shown in Table 1. The mean age of the Pond sand filter Rainwater Community
respondents was 37 years. The mean family size was 4.67 based

persons in a household. Nearly 33% of the respondents Sharing of functional Groundwater Neighbourhood
tubewells
had no formal education. A large percentage of the house-
Pond water Rainwater Neighbourhood
holds’ income source was agriculture (37%); others owned

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 535 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

Table 3 | Drinking water sourcing patterns dry season, ponds were found to be the most common source
of drinking water, followed by PSFs, with the use of other
Dependency Number of % of
on source Source type households households sources being limited. About 69 and 18%, respectively,

One source RWHS 41 5.5

of the households reported using pond and PSF water

CRWHS 12 1.6
during the dry season. However, in the wet season, the

Tubewell 6 0.8
majority of the households (91%) reported using RWHS

Pond 5 0.7
water. While only about 4 and 3%, respectively, of the house-

Buy water 1 0.1

holds chose to use PSF and CRWHS water.

Two RWHS þ PSF 81 10.8

The duration of water use for different drinking water
sources RWHS þ Pond 391 52.1 sources are presented in Table 5. Households reported
CRWHS þ Pond 11 1.5 using PSF, tubewell and pond water for about 8, 9 and 8
RWHS þ Tubewell 23 3.1
RWHS þ Buy water 16 2.1
months, respectively. In the case of harvested rainwater, use

Three RWHS þ PSF þ Pond 109 14.5

of CRWHS water was higher than RWHS water. Households
sources RWHS þ CRWHS þ Pond 33 4.4 were found to use RWHS water for only about 4 months.
RWHS þ Tubewell þ Pond 13 1.7 Table 6 shows averages, standard deviations and the 50th
RWHS þ CRWHS þ Buy 8 1.1
water
and 75th percentile of the daily water consumption by the

Total 750 100.00

coastal population according to sex and age groups. The aver-
age daily water consumption was about 3.35 L/d without
Note: RWHS, household-based rain water harvesting system; CRWHS, community-based
rain water harvesting system; PSF, pond sand filter. gender difference. Significant difference was observed

results reveal a complex water sourcing pattern. Out of the Table 5 | Duration of water use

total households, about 91% reported that they rely on two

Drinking water sources Most frequent response in months
sources to obtain drinking water. More than half of the house-
holds were found to use a RWHS and pond water for drinking RWHS 4 months (Jun–Sep)

purposes. About 11% of the households reported using RWHS CRWHS 6 months (Jun–Nov)

and PSF water, while about 15% used RWHS, PSF and pond PSF 8 months (Oct–May)

water as their drinking water sources. Only about 9% used a Tubewell 9 months (Oct–Jun)

single source for drinking purposes. Pond 8 months (Oct–May)

The principal drinking water sources of the households

during dry and wet seasons are presented in Table 4. House-
Table 6 | Daily water consumption by coastal populations
holds’ choice of water sources is seasonally dependent. In the
Percentiles

Table 4 | Principal water sources by season N Mean (SD) L/d Range (L/d) 50th 75th

Percentage of households Total 2,654 3.35 (0.98) 1.00–6.25 3.00 3.50

Principal water sources Gender ( p ¼ 0.001)
Dry season Wet season
Male 1,237 3.52 (1.04) 1.00–6.25 3.50 3.75
RWHS 5.87 91.1
Female 1,417 3.19 (0.89) 1.00–6.25 3.00 3.25
CRWHS 2.13 2.8
Age group (years)
PSF 17.73 4.3 ( p ¼ 0.158)
Tubewell 4.80 0.8 15–24 606 3.25 (1.09) 1.25–6.25 3.00 3.25
Buy water 0.13 0.1 25–34 642 3.36 (0.95) 1.00–5.75 3.00 3.50
Pond 69.34 0.9 35–44 547 3.56 (0.97) 1.25–6.25 3.25 3.50
Total 100.00 100.0  45 859 3.26 (0.90) 1.00–5.75 3.00 3.50

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 536 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

between male and female consumption. However, no signifi- Table 8 | Operation and maintenance schedules of RWHS reported by household
surveyed
cant differences were observed between the different age
groups. The 35–44-year-olds had the highest average and Tanks surveyed
Operation and maintenance (n ¼ 715) Percentage
median consumption, while the 15–24-year-olds consumed
the least of the all age groups. It is noteworthy that a substantial Roof cleaning
individual difference was evident and some individuals con- No cleaning 241 33.7
sumed as much as 6.25 L/d. 1 time/year 303 42.4
Among households who were found to use harvested rain- 2 times/year 77 10.7
water only about 3% reported using any in-house method to 3 times/year 19 2.7
purify their drinking water (Table 7), whereas about 13% of Many times 75 10.5
the PSF water users treat their water in their home. In case First flush time after dry period
(missing ¼ 4)
of pond water users, about 53% reported using alum to treat
No first flush 101 14.2
the water. Approximately 37% of the households who boiled
<10 min 431 60.6
their pond water also use alum for additional treatment.
10–20 min 118 16.6
30 min 61 8.6
Operation and maintenance of RWHSs, CRWHSs and
Tank cleaning (missing ¼ 5)
PSFs
No cleaning 5 0.7
1 time/year 113 15.9
Table 8 shows the features of the RWHSs operation and main-
2 times/year 97 13.7
tenance schedule for the households surveyed. More than one-
3 times/year 45 6.3
third (34%) of the households reported that they do not clean
Many times 450 63.4

Table 7 | Treatment of drinking water prior to consumption Water collection from the tank
Manually 672 94.0
Treatment method Number of households Percentage
From tap 40 5.6
Harvested rainwater (n ¼ 738) Other means 3 0.4
Alum (Chemical) 6 0.8
Boiling þ alum 11 1.5
the roof annually. About 42% reported that they clean the roof
Boiling 1 0.1
once a year. A majority reported that the first flushing time was
Filtering (home filter) 3 0.4
less than 10 min. It is important to note that about 14%
Total 2.8
reported that they do not first flush before rainwater collection.
PSF water (n ¼ 190)
The majority of the households (63%) reported that they clean
Alum (chemical) 11 5.8
the rainwater tanks several times a year. Manual abstraction of
Boiling þ alum 11 5.8
water from the tank was common amongst the households;
Boiling 2 1.1
only about 6% of the rainwater tanks had a tap for water collec-
Total 12.6
tion. In case of CRWHSs and PSFs, the majority of the
Pond water (n ¼ 562)
respondents said that there is no community-based manage-
Alum (chemical) 294 52.3
ment for operation and maintenance.
Boiling þ alum 206 36.7
Boiling 16 2.8
Effects of distance and time on PSFs and CRWHSs water
Boiling þ bleaching powder 2 0.4
collection
Filtering (home filter) 15 2.7
Others 4 0.7
The distance that the respondents need to travel and also the
Total 95.5
time required for water collection from PSFs and CRWHSs

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 537 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

are presented in Tables 9 and 10, respectively. In the case of the respondents preferred the RWHS and about 22%
PSFs, about 30% of the total households had PSFs within opted for community-based options. Of respondents who
400 m of their houses (see Table 9), while about 46% of preferred the RWHS, about 95% reported harvesting rain-
the households had no PSF within 2 km. Time required for water in the wet season. However, only about 19% were
water collection from the PSF was more than 2 hours for found to have improved rainwater tanks (tank size
55% of the households. In response to a question on why 1,000 L) for household rainwater collection.
people use pond water instead of PSF water, about 68% of
the respondents replied that ‘PSF is not available within a
short distance’, and 79% of them said that ‘water collection DISCUSSION
from the PSF is time consuming’. In addition, about 42%
said ‘PSF does not function properly year-round’. Only The study shows that coastal households are mainly depen-
about 6% of the households had a CRWHS within 400 m dent on multiple sources for drinking purposes. The use of
of their houses, while about 81% had no CRWHS within pond water in the dry season by the majority of respondents
2 km of their houses (see Table 10). Time required for as a principal source of water supply reflects the lack of
water collection from CRWHSs was more than 2 hours for PSFs and CRWHSs in the study area. In the wet season
about 83% of the households. (May to October), it is possible to harvest rainwater at the
household level. However, the majority of respondents
Households’ preferred option said that they do not have tanks large enough for storing
rainwater for long periods. In the case of RWH, plastic
In response to the query regarding the preference for the and ferrocement tanks are considered as improved tanks.
household (RWHS) and community-based (CRWHS or According to the survey results, only about 23% of the
PSF) option or options after explaining all the technologies households reported having improved rainwater tanks for
in detail, such as initial cost and running cost, quality of household rainwater collection. Many of the respondents
water, convenience of use and health risks, about 78% of said that even in the wet season if there is a long dry

Table 9 | Distance and time required for water collection from PSF

Drink PSF water Do not drink PSF water Overall % of total

households
Number of % of total Number of % of total
households households households households

Distance of PSF
<400 m 91 47.9 137 24.5 30.4
400–1,000 m 74 39.0 77 13.8 20.1
>1,000–2,000 m 8 4.2 21 3.8 3.9
>2,000 m 17 9.0 325 58.0 45.6
Total 190 100.00 560 100.0 100.00
Time required for water
collectiona
<20 min 27 14.2 36 6.4 8.4
20–60 min 55 29.0 55 9.8 14.7
>60–120 min 92 48.4 71 12.7 21.7
>120 min 16 8.4 398 71.1 55.2
Total 190 100.00 560 100.0 100.0
a
Total collection time (in minutes), which includes roundtrip travel time from the house to the source and filling and queuing time.

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 538 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

Table 10 | Distance and time required for water collection from CRWHS

Drink CRWHS water Do not drink CRWHS water Overall % of total

households
Number of % of total Number of % of total
households households households households

Distance of CRWHS
<400 m 41 64.1 1 0.1 5.6
400–1,000 m 19 29.7 15 2.2 4.5
>1,000–2,000 m 4 6.3 60 8.8 8.5
>2,000 m 0 0 610 88.9 81.3
Total 64 100.0 686 100.00 100.0
Time required for water
collectiona
<20 min 39 61.0 1 0.1 5.3
20–60 min 23 35.9 8 1.2 4.1
>60–120 min 2 3.1 57 8.3 7.9
>120 min 0 0 620 90.4 82.6
Total 64 100.0 686 100.00 100.00
a
Total collection time (in minutes), which includes roundtrip travel time from the house to the source and filling and queuing time.

period, they need to collect water from other sources. The economic life span of a ferrocement tank is 15 years, the
overall use of ponds suggests that they are very important unit cost of PSF water is estimated to be Tk. 0.013/L,
sources of drinking water for rural households. The duration whereas for RWHS the cost is Tk. 0.232/L and for CRWHS,
of tubewell water use was the highest among the sources. Tk. 0.225/L. It is apparent that water collected by PSF is the
However, tubewells are useful in very few places. Only 6% cheapest option. In case of RWH, a CRWHS would be little
of the households were found to use tubewell water for cheaper than a RWHS.
drinking purposes. In addition, households using tubewell
water complained about high iron and salinity in the water. Feasible combination of options

Economic feasibility of RWHSs, CRWHSs and PSFs RWH for the coastal communities that experience a mini-
mum of 6 months rainfall duration is indeed a
Economic feasibility of RWHSs, CRWHSs and PSFs are worthwhile strategy. The average yearly rainfall in Bangla-
shown in Table 11. Rainfed ponds were not considered in desh varies from 2,200 to 2,800 mm. Several studies
the economic analysis since ponds are natural or man-made (Ferdausi & Bolkland ; Islam et al. ) have shown
reservoirs rather than a technological option. The analysis that household RWH is a feasible alternative water
was done considering that a family of five members would supply option for coastal areas of Bangladesh. In the
consume 25 L of water per day for drinking and cooking. study area, the majority of households prefer the house-
This analysis will not be effective if water is used for other pur- hold-based option (RWHS). In addition, inconvenience of
poses. Storage capacity for RWHSs and CRWHSs was use and maintenance requirements are also low for
considered to be 5,000 L (one household) and 25,000 L (five RWHSs. The main advantage of the RWHS is provision
households), respectively, which will ensure water storage of water right at the household, thus avoiding the burden
for at least 180 d. Since rainfall is available for about 6 of having to walk a long distance to fetch water. However,
months, the storage capacity will ensure a year-round water a water supply system completely based on harvested rain-
supply. For water consumption by a family, considering that water requires large storage reservoirs (Table 11). Since the

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 539 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

Table 11 | Economic feasibility of RWHS, CRWHS and PSF

RWHS CRWHS PSF

Cost for 5 households Cost for 60 households

• Construction cost (include first flush and • Total construction cost Tk. 66,000
gutter system) Tk. 1,40,260 (storage • Maintenance cost Tk. 3,000/year
capacity 25,000 L) (including cleaning by chlorine and
• Maintenance cost Tk. 1,000/year repairing if any leakage detected)
(including cleaning by chlorine and
repairing if any leakage detected)
Cost per household Cost per household Cost per household
• Cost of construction (include first flush • Total construction cost Tk. 28,052 • Total construction cost Tk. 1100
and gutter system) Tk. 29,000 (Storage • Maintenance cost Tk. 200/year • Maintenance cost Tk. 50/year
capacity 5,000 L)
• Maintenance cost Tk. 200/year (including
cleaning by chlorine and repairing if any
leakage detected)
Economic life ¼ 15 years Economic life ¼ 15 years Economic life ¼ 15 years
Therefore, total cost ¼ [29,000 þ (200 × 14)] ¼ Therefore, total cost ¼ [28,052 þ (200 × 14)] ¼ Therefore, total cost ¼ [1,100 þ (50 × 14)] ¼
Tk. 31,800 Tk. 30,852 Tk. 1,800
Annual payment ¼ (31,800/15) ¼ Tk. 2,120 Annual payment ¼ (30,852/15) ¼ Tk. 2,057 Annual payment ¼ (1,800/15) ¼ Tk. 120
Cost/L ¼ [31,800/(25 L × 365 d × 15 years)] ¼ Cost/L ¼ [30,852/(25 L × 365 d × 15 years)] ¼ Cost/L ¼ [1,800/(25 L × 365 d × 15
Tk 0.23/L Tk 0.21/L years)] ¼ Tk 0.013/L
Cost/L ¼ Tk. 0.232 Cost/L ¼ Tk. 0.225 Cost/L ¼ Tk. 0.013 (Cheapest)

Note: Construction costs of the systems are according to DPHE (Department of Public Health Engineering) Bangladesh. 1 US$ ¼ 78 Tk. (Bangladesh Taka).

financial base in the rural area is very weak, a RWHS for intervention for SIDR cyclone) have been undertaken by
year-round water supply would not be easily affordable. government organizations and non-governmental organiz-
In the coastal areas, there is no plan to supply piped ations (NGOs) to promote RWHSs; however, the study
water in the near future. For households who cannot use shows that the coverage is very poor. So, subsidies or pay-
a RWHS all year, a combination of options will be ment in instalments should be given due consideration for
useful. According to economic feasibility, preference of a safe supply of drinking water to the poor.
option, a combination of the RWHS and PSF need Poor operation and maintenance of RWHSs was found
proper consideration for providing safe drinking water to in the study area. Islam et al. (b) found that knowledge of
the rural coastal population. safe drinking water is currently not sufficient among south-
west coastal communities of Bangladesh. The lack of
Issues concerning RWHS knowledge and poor maintenance behaviour influence har-
vested rainwater quality (Bagmura et al. ). Therefore,
Cost is an important issue for introducing RWHSs in rural while the use of roof-collected rainwater can contribute to
Bangladesh. In the study areas, about 53% of the respon- increasing available water, it might at the same time intro-
dents reported that their annual income is less than Tk. duce new health threats due to waterborne diseases (Leder
36,000 (US$462/year). Clearly, up front payment in cash et al. ). Risks of rooftop runoff contamination appear
would be a major problem for lower income groups. In to be limited to those rainwater systems that do not have
recent years, several programmes (Water Supply and Sani- proper design, proper materials or adequate disinfection
tation Coastal Belt Project; Village Water Supply and procedures (Lye ; Ward et al. ). Islam et al. (a)
Sanitation Projects in Coastal Belts; Water Supply showed that contamination of harvested rainwater is associ-
and Environmental Sanitation Project at Mongla Poura- ated with lack of first flushing, water collection from the
shava; Water Supply in Coastal Belts Project; WASH tank manually, unclean inside of the storage tank and a

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 540 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

dirty gutter or blockage in the path the water takes from the Issues concerning PSF
roof to the storage tank.
In the study area, the majority of the households do not In the study area, PSFs have been installed randomly based
have first flushing devices and they abstract water manually. on the availability of rainfed ponds. PSFs are located in dis-
These may cause risk of microbial contamination of har- tant locations in a scattered manner. The effect is that a
vested water. For instance, it is common for funding considerable number of rural residents must travel a long
agencies to subsidize tank-building while leaving construc- distance to fetch water from PSFs (see Table 7). In coastal
tion of gutter and flushing devices to the householder’s areas of Bangladesh, PSF is the only suitable option for
discretion (Thomas & Martinson ). Karim () sur- year-round water supply (Kamruzzaman & Ahmed ).
veyed 1,000 RWHSs in arsenic-affected and coastal areas of The PSF is a low-cost technology with very high efficiency
Bangladesh and found that about 24% RWH systems have in turbidity and bacterial removal. It is preferred as an
no gutter and down pipe. In such cases, there is no definite alternative water supply system in the coastal areas of Ban-
rainwater collection and conveyance system to the storage gladesh. The availability of PSFs within a short distance of
reservoir and people mainly do it manually. It is thus necess- the households will reduce the use of pond water. The
ary not only to install RWHSs, but also to increase public study showed that about 18% of the households had PSFs
knowledge of the physical and non-physical features of within 400 m of the households but they do not drink
these systems, as well as of measures to safeguard the quality PSF water. The time required for water collection from
of the water collected in the tanks. So, the sustainability of the PSFs, their non-functioning and lack of awareness about
RWHS requires close cooperation between the government health risks may have been the reasons for not using PSF
organizations and NGOs, and the rural households (Figure 1). water. Health impacts of water are related to both the qual-
A sustainable RWHS is one that is implemented after consid- ity of water and its availability within a reasonable
ering the physical and non-physical attributes, and the socio- distance. In addition, substantial queuing time at commu-
economic attributes in its design. Guidelines on the operation nity water collection points may restrict the collection of
and maintenance of RWHS should be written and dissemi- safe water.
nated to rural communities. The experience gained from the In Bangladesh, one of the major problems of the existing
RWHS pilot programme will be very valuable in incorporat- PSFs is poor operation and maintenance (Alam et al. ).
ing local experience in the guidelines. Increasing awareness During the field survey, some of the PSFs were found to
through the dissemination of relevant information may help be non-functioning. Performance of a PSF depends mainly
individuals lower their health risk. on its operation and maintenance. Sand washing is the
main component of operation and maintenance. Users are
found to be reluctant to wash the sand bed, which results
in reduction of filtration rate and increase in fetching time.
Sometimes people collect water from PSF source ponds to
avoid the long fetching time to collect water from PSFs. In
the study area, outlet taps of the PSFs were found to be
absent in some cases and people were using sticks in the
outlet pipe to control outflow of water. These sticks may
be responsible for secondary sources of contamination of
the treated water from PSFs. A large number of PSF
source water ponds were found unprotected (no suitable
embankment to control surface runoff), which allows a
high pollution load to enter the pond. High bacteriological
contamination in PSF source pond water was found by
Figure 1 | Sustainable household RWH scheme for rural households. Islam et al. (a).

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 541 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

It will not be simple to have PSFs accepted on a perma- risk assessment may not always be adequate, especially in tro-
nent basis. If people are to be encouraged to adopt PSFs, pical countries like Bangladesh. The impact of seasonal
there are a number of critical issues to be addressed. PSFs variation on water consumption in this coastal population
will require regular maintenance and will generally be has not been examined yet.
shared by a number of households. This raises the issue of
ownership, who will pay, and how the payment, access and
responsibility for maintenance will be shared. Therefore, vil-
CONCLUSIONS
lagers should be involved in both the financing and operation
and maintenance of PSFs. Community participation can gen-
Use of multiple sources for drinking purposes is noted as
erate the commitment for maintenance because they are
being common amongst the rural coastal population. House-
involved. User groups may be formed among the beneficiaries
holds are mainly dependent on pond and RWHS water
to conduct regular monitoring and maintenance.
during the dry and wet seasons, respectively. In the dry
season, due to lack of suitable water sources, a large
Daily water consumption number of people drink pond water. Distance and time
required for water collection were found to make it difficult
Estimates of drinking water consumption are necessary in to collect water from both PSF and CRWHS sources.
risk assessment on microbial hazards in drinking water. Water consumption patterns and households’ preference of
The daily water consumption of the coastal population esti- option suggests that a combination of RWHS and PSF
mated in the present study was not so far from the previous could be suitable for year-round water supply. Subsidies or
estimates of the rural arsenic-affected areas of Bangladesh payment in instalments for improved RWHSs should be
(see Table 12) but higher than the standard of 2 L/d used given due consideration. In addition, concerted efforts must
by WHO and some regulatory agencies (Levallois et al. be directed towards increasing availability of PSF within a
). Nevertheless, the findings of a previous study (Shafi- short distance. Both RWHSs and PSFs need regular mainten-
quzzaman et al. ) show very high water consumption. ance. In addition to installation of water supply facilities, it is
According to that study, the average daily water consumption necessary to make the residents aware about proper oper-
was 5–7 L/d. This difference may partly be due to difference ation and maintenance. For PSFs, a community-based
in the calculation of the amount of per capita water consump- maintenance system may ensure regular monitoring and
tion as the total household water amount was divided by the maintenance. Moreover, Water Safety Plans have been devel-
total number of household members, while the other studies oped for small-scale water supply systems including RWHSs
reported here obtained water consumption data directly from (Mahmud et al. ). So, implementation of Water Safety
the participants. The findings of this study show that the Plans will support safe potable water supply in the water-
water consumption rate of 2 L/d generally used for health scarce coastal communities in Bangladesh.

Table 12 | Reported daily water consumption in the rural arsenic-affected areas of

Bangladesh
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Average per person Maximum Number of
daily consumption L/d L/d participants Reference The authors would like to thank the students of Environmental
3.00 6.00 38 Watanabe et al. Science Discipline (Sabuj, Sumon, Mahmudul, Farhan,
() Shamim, Uzzal, Subindu and Arif), Khulna University,
3.53 – 640 Milton et al. () Bangladesh for their cooperation during the questionnaire
5–7 – 428 Shafiquzzaman survey. Financial support from the Japanese Government
et al. ()
(Monbukagakusho: MEXT) during this study is gratefully
3.00 5.70 65 Ohno et al. ()
acknowledged.

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 542 M. A. Islam et al. | Potable water scarcity: options and issues in the coastal areas of Bangladesh Journal of Water and Health | 11.3 | 2013

Mahmud, S. G., Shamsuddin, S. A. J., Ahmed, M. F., Davison, A.,

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First received 25 October 2012; accepted in revised form 26 March 2013. Available online 9 May 2013

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