Women suffer most as safe water crisis grips CHT

Now it is monsoon—water is everywhere! But Hinmoy Bawn, an ethnic woman and mother of three children, has to walk a long and rough hilly path every day to fetch drinking and household waters, reports UNB. Hinmoy along with her five-member family lives at Betoni para of Bandarban sadar upazila. There is no source of water at her locality.  So she has to endure the hassle of going to a hilly spring, one kilometre away from her locality, twice a day to fetch water.
“It’s really a hazardous task to walk through a hilly path. But I have to walk half an hour to go to the spring to collect water and need the same time to return home,” Hinmoy, a woman in her 40s, told UNB. During a recent visit to Betoni para of Bandarban, a locality of 25 Bawn families, this correspondent found that a number of women of Bawn ethnic minority were involved in collecting water from a spring located nearly 100 metres down from the hilltop. In ethnic families in the Chittaging Hill Tract (CHT), it is women’s responsibility to collect water. They collect water for their households from surface sources walking a long distance as groundwater is not available there due to unique land formation.  During monsoon, it is a little bit easy to collect water from their nearby water sources, but they face the scarcity of water during dry season since most of the surface water sources dry up during the period. Hinmoy said they use spring water for their household chores and drinking. And all the 25 Bawn families have to come to the spring to do so. “As we’ve no alternative, we’ve to use spring water. Collecting water in hills at daytime is a hard task, and it is even harder at night”, she added.

 

Women suffer most as safe water crisis grips CHT

Now it is monsoonwater is everywhere! But Hinmoy Bawn, an ethnic woman and mother of three children, has to walk a long and rough hilly path every day to fetch drinking and household waters, reports UNB. Hinmoy along with her five-member family lives at Betoni para of Bandarban sadar upazila. There is no source of water at her locality. So she has to endure the hassle of going to a hilly spring, one kilometre away from her locality, twice a day to fetch water. Its really a hazardous task to walk through a hilly path. But I have to walk half an hour to go to the spring to collect water and need the same time to return home, Hinmoy, a woman in her 40s, told UNB. During a recent visit to Betoni para of Bandarban, a locality of 25 Bawn families, this correspondent found that a number of women of Bawn ethnic minority were involved in collecting water from a spring located nearly 100 metres down from the hilltop. In ethnic families in the Chittaging Hill Tract (CHT), it is womens responsibility to collect water. They collect water for their households from surface sources walking a long distance as groundwater is not available there due to unique land formation. During monsoon, it is a little bit easy to collect water from their nearby water sources, but they face the scarcity of water during dry season since most of the surface water sources dry up during the period. Hinmoy said they use spring water for their household chores and drinking. And all the 25 Bawn families have to come to the spring to do so. As weve no alternative, weve to use spring water. Collecting water in hills at daytime is a hard task, and it is even harder at night, she added.