Where Goats Drink First, Then Women: Rising Seas, Failing Health & Enduring Poverty
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In coastal Bangladesh, storms and sea level rise mean many sources of drinking water are now contaminated by salt, and wells must be drilled ever deeper to find any fresh water. In some areas of southwestern Bangladesh "you can dig 2,000 feet deep down but fresh water may still elude," said Khairul Islam, the Bangladesh country director for Water Aid, an international clean water charity.
For Kishore Mandal, who lives in the village of Joymoni, on the edge of Bangladesh's southern tidal forests, that means drinking water is no longer free, except during monsoon months when it's captured in rainwater harvesting drums. "Every week from November until July I buy three 30-litre jerry cans of water. We keep aside 240 taka ($2.80) for water every month," he said. Women and girls carry the containers the 2 km home, he said.
When drinking water falls short, it's also the women who often go without, or are forced to drink from salty ponds nearby, said Mandal's wife Tripti. "Our goats have priority over womenfolk for the sweet water because salt water causes cattle diarrhea," she said. With goats acting as a form of savings, in a community increasingly hard-hit by extreme weather, keeping them alive is crucial, she said.
Women's hygiene also suffers when water runs short. Women in Dulki, a village on the Sundarbans island of Gosaba, say washing their cloth menstrual pads in salty water turns them hard when they dry, often causing discomfort, lesions and sometimes infections. In neighbouring Sonagoan village, Namita Mandol, 32, recently had a 1.5 kg uterine tumour removed at a private clinic, at a cost of more than $350. She said she knows of at least seven other women in the three surrounding villages who have suffered similar tumours - and all of the women worked long hours in the sea, trawling for baby prawns, she said.
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http://news.trust.org/item/20181031105904-7t4vo/