Before August this year, Ayesha Akhtar had to make do with salt water to drink and do household chores because there was no source of fresh water in her village, Nuniarchhara.
But now Ayesha as well as 6,000 other residents of the village, in Cox’s Bazar Sadar upazila, has access to fresh drinking water, thanks to a brand-new solar power-based water desalination plant.
“It was difficult, drinking salt water. It was not just the taste; drinking salt water has many health hazards. So I am very happy that we have a way to get fresh water now,” Ayesha told the Dhaka Tribune while collecting fresh water from the plant.
The plant, the first in the area, produces around 5,000 litres of drinking water every day. A project of the Department of Environment, the plant went fully operation in August this year.
The project was jointly financed by the government’s Climate Change Trust Fund, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Kingdom of Netherlands.
“There is no source of fresh water withing the 5-7sq-km area around the village. So the villagers had to drink salt water, which has several side-effects, including migraine. The children are still sick though they stopped drinking salt water more than a month ago,” said Sardar Shariful Islam, assistant director of the Department of Environment.
“But now they have access to fresh water through the desalination plant.”
However, other than providing fresh water to the locals of Nuniarchhara, the government had an ulterior motive behind setting up the plant in the area.
“The desalination plant is a gift to us from the government, because we are helping them expand the mangrove forest nearby,” said Md Alam, general secretary of Village Conservation Group.
This is part of the government initiative to involve the general people in protecting forests and wildlife through co-management projects across the country.
“We have been able to expand the forest to around 400 hectares from 60 hectares,” Alam said. “Now migratory birds come to this forest.
“The purpose of setting up the plant here has partly been to encourage the locals to actively participate in conservation and expansion of the mangrove forest. And it worked,” Shariful told the Dhaka Tribune.
Dr Sultan Ahmed, director of the Department of Environment, said: “Most of the land here used to be used for shrimp farming. But now it is covered with trees, and it has been possible because of the locals’ involvement.”
Meanwhile, massive afforestation of Moheskhali and Sonadia islands in Cox’s Bazar is in progress, said RSM Munirul Islam, divisional forest officer at Coastal Forest Division, Chittagong.
