Bangladesh's monsoon provides massive amounts of rain which has not traditionally been harvested for drinking. Slowly, in pilot programmes such as this, the long overdue effort is beginning. Other possible solutions being tried out include a simple filter using three ceramic pots suspended above each other, and a pump set up by a pond or river in which the pumped-up ground water is filtered before emerging through a tap. But not one of the solutions being implemented experimentally is half as convenient as the tube wells it is designed to replace. They are easy to sink in this delta country's soft alluvial soil, and for tens of millions of peasants the wells have revolutionised access to water.
Many households have several, as a Western house has taps in several different rooms.
Three-quarters of those in existence have been sunk by private enterprise. So popular have they become that a tube well is a common item in a bride's dowry. It is a disagreeable challenge, and the government has yet to show any appetite for it. But unless they rise to the challenge soon, a disaster to dwarf Bangladeshi disasters past will become unavoidable. Ths website is designed and maintained in cooperation with HelpForMyWebsite.