The Forum aims at sharing the successes, ideas and lessons of WaterCredit with microfinance, in order to promote additional financial innovation in the watsan space, connect current and future partner organizations, and widen its beneficiary base.

The Forum is expected to have attendance from banks, MFIs and WSH NGO WaterCredit partners, potential MFI partners, development banks, microfinance service providers and private venture capitalists.

Read full Microfinance Focus article.

“Two in 10 people globally don’t have access to safe drinking water,” Pischke said. “The number is based on a person having to travel more than a half an hour to obtain enough water to clean and nourish themselves.

“Four in 10 don’t have access to basic sanitation. That means they don’t have a basic pit latrine.”

Read full Reading Eagle article.

Kids in Dhobari slum put on a skit about getting sick from unsafe water.

We were each handed a beautiful white-budded flower stem as we entered Dhobari slum. Residents directed us to the chairs circled in a main area between brown scrap metal shacks. We sat as a few kids welcomed us and began a skit about getting sick from dirty water and then healthy again with a new clean water point. They finished their skit and finished with a few hygiene songs in Bengali. Dozens of men, women, and children from the community also hovered around to watch and joined us in applause and appreciation.

Our second visit was to Deowanbari, a slum community with a water project in progress. Muddy water spewed up from the ground and flooded the small space as four men drilled about 300 feet down, pumping long bamboo poles and tapping into the safe water. This is the first clean water project in their community and will be finished in three or four days! In the absence of clean water, community members were walking 30 minutes to a contaminated pond for water, four to five times a day. I got to meet a 30-year-old mother named Laila who was a leader in her community and helped this project come to fruition by organizing the community to approach Water.org and DSK for a WaterCredit loan.

The afternoon was spent back at Board Guard slum (the community in need of safe water and sanitation), talking with more community members about their situation, and taking videos and photos. I talked with the president and general secretary of the Community-Based-Organization (CBO) that they had formed over a year ago to mobilize the community around access to safe water.
Alamgir Hossain, the CBO’s General Secretary said, “We formed the CBO because one person cannot do anything, but united, we have power. We demand safe water because we have suffered from the water crisis for a long time.” Alamgir and Shajeda Begum, the CBO president, shared with me some of their hopes and goals for their community in obtaining access to safe water and sanitation in the near future.

People begin to line up in the evening at a public water tap in Dhaka in hopes of getting some water when it is briefly turned on.

We left as dusk was in full motion. As we drove away, we passed the water point about a mile away from Board Guard that community members walk to twice a day for drinking water. A queue had already begun. Women and children, probably thirty deep, marked their places in line with their silver water vessels. Here, I saw the term “water insecurity” come to life for the first time. The water tap is turned on and off a couple times a day; those in line don’t know how long the water will last, or if they will even get water at all. I had read accounts from our partners about this dilemma and stories of high tensions and fights breaking out at queues because of the limited water. You can imagine the desperation, the waiting, and the uncertainty of whether or not you will get enough water or any at all…

Those in line can tell when the water is going to be shut off because of a sound the pipes make. One of our travel companions was filming the queue and just happened to have his camera at the spigot when the water was shut off. A fight broke out as the next woman in line shoved her container under the spigot in an attempt to get any amount of water she could, while the woman at the front shoved her vessel back in anger; others in line began to push and broke into a yelling frenzy. And just like that, the water was shut off for the night.

Scenes such as this one, brought on by water insecurity, are unfortunately common at public taps throughout Bangladesh and India. But when individuals and communities have the opportunity to take out a WaterCredit loan for their own safe water tap, they are able to kiss water insecurity goodbye. This is the exact reason I am able to leave these slums with any hope at all. I am inspired by the community members who are taking action on their own behalf, as well as encouraged by the solutions and successes I’m seeing with my very own eyes.

Tomorrow is our last day, and we will return to both Salepur and Board Guard slums.

- Erin Swanson, Water.org Communications Specialist

Water.org in Bangladesh

Read full Peace FM article.

Last week Laila was collecting water from a distant and unsafe water source. But this week, 15 families, incuding her own, now have ready access clean water thanks to a WaterCredit loan.

Last week, 30-year-old Laila was still making four or five trips a day to a pond by a brick field to collect water for her, her husband’s, and her 10-year-old daughter’s daily needs. Each collection trip took 30 minutes.

Not only was Laila spending two hours or more collecting water from a contaminated source, but her daughter was suffering from a skin disease and frequent diarrhea due to drinking the dirty water.

But this week, Water.org and its local partner, DSK, will finish the clean water project in Laila’s community of Deowanbari slum, in Dhaka, Bangladesh! Community members drilled this deep tube well, tapping into safe water 300 feet down. The result: 15 families will have ready access to safe water for the first time.

“I am so happy to expect fresh water to wash my clothes in, cook with, clean with, and to drink,” Laila said. “And I am so happy that we do not have to go to the pond anymore.”

Laila played an important role in making Deowanbari slum’s first safe water project a reality. As a leader in her community and a Community-Based-Organization member, she organized the people in her community to approach DSK and Water.org to request a WaterCredit loan. Once her community obtained the WaterCredit loan, they then worked together to construct the new system. Leadership by community members Laila is critical to making water projects sustainable in the long run.

Read full True/Slant article.

Based on various presentations from a number of countries, it was noted that most governments do not have specific budgets for sanitation and hygiene initiatives.

Read full The New Times article.

Read full Kalinga Times article.

In Chukru village the people are suffering from acute dental and skeletal disorders, and it’s been that way for a long time.

Read full NTDTV article.