Iron. Arsenic. Salt. E. coli. Impurities in drinking water are a daily reality for millions of Bangladeshis. “We suffered from waterborne illnesses,” says 31-year-old textile factory operator Hasan from Saltha Upzila in the Faridpur District. He experienced stomach aches and diarrhea from a combination of iron and arsenic. His doctor urged him to buy bottled water, but he couldn’t afford it
Bangladesh faces enormous hurdles in achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water. Bore wells serve as the primary source of drinking water in most homes, but widespread groundwater contamination and aquifer depletion pose significant health challenges and water insecurity. The country has ensured access to basic water services to 98 percent of households, yet 57 percent don’t have safe drinking water. There aren’t enough access points, treatment facilities, or storage. Floods and droughts aggravate matters. Only 34 percent of urban households and four percent of rural households have access to piped water. And many solutions established by the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) often can’t function after a year or two due to poor maintenance. In addition, inappropriate water storage systems and poor handwashing practices expose drinking water stored in households to contamination.
All of which raises some key questions. What is the value of safe, reliable drinking water? And how can private companies support the provision of services often perceived as free public goods?
Taking into account the local context and political economy, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Abt-led Feed the Future Bangladesh Nutrition Activity team is working to tackle this issue. The team works with partners to improve dietary practices; water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); and the social and economic status of women and adolescents in targeted areas. The Activity collaborates with the public and private sectors to ensure sustainable food and water markets and expand climate-smart approaches.
One example of our work to improve access to and use of safe drinking water is a partnership with Drinkwell, a private enterprise with certified water treatment plants in Bangladesh’s Faridpur District. Our collaboration with Drinkwell applied market system development and social behavior change approaches to improve access to safe drinking water, combat malnutrition and waterborne diseases, and improve public health through sustainable, market-based solutions.
Abt designed a behavior change campaign aimed at educating the local community about the risks of locally-contaminated water sources and the low-cost opportunity for safe drinking water. The campaign distilled messaging to visual aids to reach a low-literacy audience. It focused on individuals’ perceived benefits and barriers to behavior change. Before the campaign’s launch, Abt’s local team conducted rigorous market testing on the materials, including one-on-one interviews and focus group discussions with male and female respondents.
We held campaign activities where they could have the most reach: in courtyard and school sessions and awareness initiatives in local bazaars, mosques, and health facilities. Collaborating with local leaders to promote understanding and trust was critical to acceptance and adoption of safe drinking water consumption.
Market testing indicated over 90 percent of respondents had a solid understanding and expressed motivation to access safe drinking water. But building a new market requires not just a quality product, but also support to overcome ingrained habits and behaviors. We knew from community efforts that households were content with their bore wells, which they had used for decades to access ‘free’ water. But widespread groundwater contamination and aquifer depletion pose significant health challenges and water insecurity in the areas. In Faridpur District, challenges also include waterlogging, arsenic contamination, and other water pollution. So, the challenge lay in establishing a value for safe drinking water.
Drinkwell launched ATM cards to enable households to use an efficient payment system to access its water, purified using modern reverse osmosis technology. Our team raised awareness of the long-term risks of contaminated water to create demand for the ATM cards, but the community proved resistant to paying for them. For Drinkwell, which shouldered the cost of creating safe water access, this was unsustainable.
The solution: We used our knowledge about a strong demand for door-step delivery of water in these communities and acted on it. Drinkwell added a delivery service for its 20-liter blue jars of drinking water, which led to a spike in demand that made the business model viable. The team supported Drinkwell in navigating requirements from the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution to allow the program to expand quickly.
Since it launched in September 2022, Drinkwell's water treatment plants have provided 345,000 liters of safe drinking water. The Activity continues to contribute to demand creation for these water treatment plants through social and behavior change-led awareness creation. And the project will continue its efforts towards ensuring safe drinking water for rural communities.
The Activity’s focus on safe water has generated important results as of March 2024:
- 62,000 people gained access to safe drinking water
- 500 users of Drinkwell water ATMs
- 700 customers received delivery of jar water.
Drinkwell customers, who pay BDT 0.75 a liter compared with the BDT 2.50 average water jar price of other drinking water suppliers, are grateful for access to safe water. Hasan is one. “Now we have access to clean water, improving our health outcomes,” he says. “I hope more rural communities can benefit from such initiatives.”
In addition to the Drinkwell collaboration, the Activity works with other water partners to expand access to clean water in water-scarce regions with market potential. The Activity supports interventions to increase communities’ access to safe water and facilitating continuous water supplies for households through solutions like household rainwater harvesting and supporting piped water installed by the public sector and development partners. We amplify collaboration between private partners and local governments to gain local endorsement and community acceptance, critical for long-term sustainability.
The Feed the Future Bangladesh Nutrition Activity’s overall goals reach well beyond safe water. In the Activity’s fifth year, our strategic partnerships in nutrition, empowerment, and WASH reached almost 786,000 people. Collaboration with the government and a $647,636 investment from the private sector strengthened the Activity’s success in dietary diversity, women's empowerment, and WASH practices. We partnered with the Department of Agricultural Extension and seven private sector companies to promote consumption of balanced, diverse, and nutritious diets through homestead gardening. We supported 164,292 individuals in implementing improved management and climate-smart practices, exceeding our target by 46 percent.
We have empowered women by providing access to resources and opportunities to adopt improved nutrition and hygiene behavior to enhance their overall health and well-being. We provided 8,123 women micro-entrepreneurs, including food vendors and members of micro-finance institutions, with increased access to economic resources through entrepreneurship training and linkages with buyers, suppliers, and service providers. The result: improved businesses and economic well-being.
47,197 adolescent girls and boys reported an increased self-efficacy and our data show that dietary diversity among school adolescents and their families increased.
The breakthrough realization of the market for doorstep drinking water delivery services underscores the value of customer-centric innovation and responsiveness to market demands.
Successful models like this one are ways that Abt collaborates and innovates to catalyze sustainable change—for improved access to water, women’s empowerment or improved nutrition—in communities in Bangladesh, creating impact now and for years to come.