Final Report

on
Assessment of Drinking Water Security in the Selected Areas of
South-West Coastal Region of Bangladesh

September 2022

Jointly Conducted by
Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO)
Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Bangladesh
&
Institute of Disaster Management (IDM)
Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET)
 Executive Summary
Surging population and human activities along with global climate change have enormously increased
the vulnerability of the water system. Considering the existing situations of water security, a good
number of initiatives are taken from the Government of Bangladesh (through different relevant
departments), different research organizations, national and international NGOs of which a wide
variety of initiatives are taken into consideration for subsequent actions. However, a great deal is yet
to be done for assuring the water security, especially for drinking water. Considering the immense
importance of drinking water, the research team of the ‘Institute of Disaster Management (IDM)’ of
Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET) and ‘Water Resources Planning
Organization (WARPO)’ has designed a joint research project in the South-West Coastal belt of
Bangladesh. The research project is aligned with WARPO’s visions in addition to National Policy for
Safe Water Supply and Sanitation, Coastal Zone Policy, Bangladesh Delta Plan and SDGs in manifold
ways. The policies ensure right of access to safe water and sanitation services for all at an affordable
cost along with provide safe and sustainable water supply. National Water Policy 1999 ensures the
availability of water to all users of society, particularly the poor, and considered the particular needs
of women and children. Besides, stressed enhancing the role of women in water management as they
have a significant role in this manner. In the case of supplying drinking water, the policy will facilitate
the availability of safe and affordable drinking water supplies through various means, including
rainwater harvesting and conservation. The research project is completely aligned with those policies
and it could bring a positive outcome to achieve the goals of the policies.
The study has aimed to evaluate drinking water situation in terms of the availability, accessibility, and
quality. The study area covered 18 selected Unions of three coastal Districts -Khulna, Bagerhat and
Shatkhira. Indexing method was used to portray the availability, accessibility and quality scenario of
drinking water separately at the Union, Upazila, and District level. Afterwards, overall drinking water
situation along with drinking water availability, accessibility, quality maps have been created using
spatial analyses. At the final stage of the project, an application (WATapp) for android mobile devices
has been developed which shows the drinking water index of Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat districts
in different dimensions.
People of the study area drink water from different types of sources, such as, Pond Sand Filter, (PSF),
pond, rain water, Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant, shallow tubewell etc. In the aspect of availability,
result shows that majority of the households collect water from private sources followed by the
Government and non-government ones. Overall, water availability condition seems to be better in
Khulna than Bagerhat and Satkhira District. Whereas, in case of accessibility, the findings indicate
that the majority of families gather water from sources more than 300 meters away, which is twice the
national standard (150 m) for Bangladesh. Largely, households of Satkhira district have higher access
to the source than Khulna and Bagerhat districts. According to the findings of drinking water quality,
only 1% water sources were of good quality and the rest 99% are poor or very poor for drinking
purpose during dry season mainly due to the presence of E. Coli in the sources in very large quantity.
Overall, the water quality of Bagerhat district is relatively better than Khulna and Satkhira Districts in
both seasons. Furthermore, the water security condition in 18 disaster hotspots in the South-west
coastal region is poor to very poor. However, in comparison, Satkhira has better water security with
an average index score of 2.82 whereas Khulna and Bagerhat have of 2.55 and 2.48 respectively.
New policy interventions should emphasize on implementation of some new sources of potable water
since 42% households claimed that they faces water scarcity for 3 to 4 months in dry season. Around
33% of the surveyed respondent’s residence were located at a distance of 500 m or more from the
drinking water collection points. In addition, it was found that around 55% households require more
than 15 minutes of travelling to collect drinking water. Furthermore, road condition needs to be taken
care of in order to ensure water accessibility as 50% household use fully kutcha road for fetching
water. The longest distance between the water source and the house has been found to be 10km.
Besides, the shortest distance traveled was 0km because of the location of the source within the
home.The mobile application (WATapp) is designed as a decision making tool which will provide an
instant overview of the drinking water security situation. The output of the project work will help the

Assessment of Drinking Water Security in the Selected Areas of South-West Coastal Region of Bangladesh 2
policy makers and they can obtain a baseline for effective planning and execution with priority-based
planning.
For the future course of action, some adaptation and transformation mechanisms could be undertaken
based on the outputs of the research. The research outputs indicate that the drinking water is scarce in
the study areas. Water is available for drinking purpose from diversified sources which mostly do not
meet the quality of national or WHO standard. So, government could put their effort to ensure a good
number of potable water sources which will safeguard better accessibility to drinking water sources.
Government should keep an eye on the management of the RO plants as the concentrated water is
dumped in the nearby area and the used filters are managed improperly in most of the cases which
incur greater threats to the environment in the long run. Around 90% PSFs were found out of service
for the lack of some minute maintenance. A small amount of fund could be allocated to revive the
sources. The related ponds should be protected and maintained properly. Rain water should be
collected in a safe manner and try to circumvent the roofs made of asbestos sheets. Some health issues
are found in the local residents which could be monitored as “Water vs Health” program and take
action as per the outputs of the program.
Through the mobile application all information and research outputs could be utilized by the local
government and policy makers to take drinking water related decision in short time. The mobile app is
accessible to the marginal people also for drinking water related information. In addition, the database
can also be used as a baseline for any future study related to water. To make this endeavor of IDM,
KUET and WARPO meaningful, all the rest of the unions should be taken under consideration in the
extended research. And it is worthy to have the study for all over the country and prepare a dynamic
baseline of drinking water for Bangladesh.

Assessment of Drinking Water Security in the Selected Areas of South-West Coastal Region of Bangladesh 3
 Table of Content

Table of Content
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
TABLE OF CONTENT 4
CHAPTER ONE 10
INTRODUCTION 10
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 11
1.1 Background of the Study 11
1.1.1 Policies for Safe Drinking Water 13
1.1.1.1 Global Perspective 13
1.1.1.2 Policies for Safe Drinking Water: National Perspective 15
1.1.1.2.1 National Policy for Safe Water Supply and Sanitation 1998 16
1.1.1.2.2 National Strategy for Water Supply and Sanitation 2014 16
1.1.1.2.3 National Water Policy, 1999 16
1.1.1.2.4 National Policy for Arsenic Mitigation and Implementation Plan, 2004 16
1.1.1.2.5 Coastal Zone Policy 2005 17
1.1.1.2.6 Coastal Development Strategy, 2006 17
1.1.1.2.7 Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 17
1.1.1.2.8 Bangladesh Water Act 2013 17
1.1.1.2.9 Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2009 18
1.1.1.2.10 The National Adaptation Programme of Action 2005 18
1.1.1.2.11 The National Sustainable Development Strategy (2010-2021) 18
1.1.1.2.12 Pro Poor Strategy for Water and Sanitation Sector in Bangladesh 2020 19

CHAPTER TWO: MATERIALS AND METHODS 21

2.1 Study Area 21
2.2 Methodologies used for the Assessment of Water Availability and Accessibility 21
2.2.1 Identification of Indicators 21
2.2.2 Survey Design 23
2.2.3 Sample Size Calculation 23
2.2.4 Data Collection 24
2.2.5 Secondary Data Collection 24
2.2.6 Scaling and Normalization 25
2.2.7 Correlation and Reliability Analysis 25
2.2.8 Weighting and Aggregating 26
2.2.9 Developing Drinking Water Availability and Accessibility Index Map 27
2.2.10 Analysis 28
2.3 Methodologies used for the Assessment of Water Quality 28
2.3.1 Water Sampling 28
2.3.2 Water Quality Analysis 28
2.3.3 Development of Water Quality Index (WQI) Model 28
2.3.4 Spatial Modeling and Surface Interpolation through Kriging 30
2.3.5 Developing Drinking Water Quality Map 32
2.4 Developing Overall Drinking Water Security Map 32
2.5 Mobile Application Development 33
CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ON WATER AVAILABILITY 35
3.1 Water Availabilty Situation at Union Level 35

Assessment of Drinking Water Security in the Selected Areas of South-West Coastal Region of Bangladesh 4
 Table of Content

3.2 Water Availabilty Situation at Upazilla Level 40

3.3 Water Availabilty Situation at District Level 43
3.4 Overall Scenario of Water Availability 45
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ON WATER ACCESSIBILITY 47
4.1 Water Accessibility Situation at Union Level 47
4.2 Water Accessibility Situation at Upazila Level 50
4.3 Water Accessibility Situation at District Level 55
4.4 Overall Scenario of Water Accessibility 57
CHAPTER FIVE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ON WATER QUALITY 60
5.1 Results and Discussion 60
5.1.1 pH 60
5.1.2 Electrical conductivity (EC) 60
5.1.3 Escherichia coli 60
5.1.4 Sulphate 60
5.1.5 Chloride 55
5.1.6 Nitrate 55
5.1.7 Calcium 55
5.1.8 Magnesium 55
5.1.9 Phosphate 56
5.1.10 Arsenic 56
5.2 Water Quality Index (WQI) 56
CHAPTER SIX: OVERALL WATER SECURITY OF THE STUDY AREA 65
CHAPTER SEVEN: DEVELOPMENT OF ANDROID MOBILE APPLICATION- WATAPP 69
7.0 GeneralInformation 69
7.1 Developing Components of the Application 69
7.2 Geo Processing Tools 69
7.2.1 GIS Mapping Software 69
7.2.2 PostgreSQL 69
7.2.3 PostGIS 69
7.2.4 Geo-Server 69
7.3 Hosting Technologies 70
7.3.1 Virtual Private Server (VPS) 70
7.4 Development Tools and Technologies 70
7.4.1 JAVA 70
7.4.2 JavaScript 70
7.4.3 OpenLayers 70

CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 72

8.1 Conclusion 72
8.2 Recommendation 73
REFERENCES 75
APPENDICES 83
APPENDIX-A: Questionnaire 83
APPENDIX-B1: Scale Wise Distribution (Bagerhat) 88
APPENDIX-B2: Scale Wise Distribution (Khulna) 89
APPENDIX-B3: Scale Wise Distribution (Shatkhira) 90
APPENDIX-C: Scale Wise Distribution (Availability) 91

Assessment of Drinking Water Security in the Selected Areas of South-West Coastal Region of Bangladesh 5
 Table of Content

APPENDIX-D1: Scale Wise Distribution in Bagerhat (Accessibility) 92

APPENDIX-D2: Scale Wise Distribution in Khulna (Accessibility) 93
APPENDIX-D3: Scale Wise Distribution in Satkhira (Accessibility) 94
APPENDIX-E: Scale Wise Distribution (Accessibility) 95
APPENDIX-F: User Manual of Android Mobile Application- WATapp 96
APPENDIX-G: Name of the Project Team Members and Enumerators 104
APPENDIX-H: Field Memories 105
APPENDIX-I: Action Plan and Research Work 113
APPENDIX J: List of respondents for the Study 115

Assessment of Drinking Water Security in the Selected Areas of South-West Coastal Region of Bangladesh 6
 Table of Content

List of Figures

Figure 1: Map of the Study Area 22

Figure 2: Union Level Water Availability Map of the Three Districts 39
Figure 3: Upazilla Wise Percentage Distribution of Households as per Different Indicators 42
Figure 4: Upazilla Level Water Availability Map 43
Figure 5: District Level Water Availability Map 45
Figure 6: Union Level Water Accessibility Map 49
Figure 7: Upazilla-Wise Percentage Distribution of Households as per Different Indicators 52
Figure 8: Upazila Level Accessibility Map 54
Figure 9: Overall Scenario of Drinking Water Accessibility in Three Districts 57
Figure 10: District Level Water Accessibility Map 58
Figure 12: Spatial Distribution of WQI During (A) Dry Season and (B) Wet Season for Khulna Area 62
Figure 13: Spatial Distribution of WQI During (A) Dry Season and (B) Wet Season for Satkhira Area 63
Figure 14: Overall Water Security for Dry Season of the Study Area 65
Figure 15: Overall Water Security for Wet Season of the Study Area 66
Figure 16: Overall Water Security for Round The Year of the Study Area 67

Pie-Chart 1: The types of drinking water sources in the study area. 36

Assessment of Drinking Water Security in the Selected Areas of South-West Coastal Region of Bangladesh 7
 Table of Content

List of Tables

Table 1: Definition of the Key Elements of Water Right 14

Table 2: Aaaq Water – Standards and Generic Indicators 15
Table 3: Indicators of Household Level Water Availability Index 21
Table 4: Indicators of Household Level Water Accessibility Index 23
Table 5: Z-Value at Different Confidence Level 24
Table 6: Sample Size Calculation and Distribution 24
Table 7: Scaling for Household Level Water Availability Index 25
Table 8: Scaling for Household Level Water Accessibility Index 25
Table 9: Inter-Item Correlation Matrix and Significance for Availability Index 26
Table 10: Inter-Item Correlation Matrix and Significance for Accessibility Index 26
Table 11: Data Driven Weight for Availability Index 27
Table 12: Data Driven Weight for Availability Index 27
Table 13: Assigned Weight and Calculated Relative Weight for Selected Parameters 29
Table 14: Water Quality Standards and Weight Wise Influence 31
Table 15: Normalization in Four Defined Category 31
Table 16: Score and Category of the Indexing 32
Table 17: Variable Wise Water Availability Condition in Different Unions of Bagerhat 36
Table 18: Variable Wise Water Availability Condition in Different Unions of Khulna 38
Table 19: Variable Wise Water Availability Condition in Different Unions of Satkhira 39
Table 20: Variable-Wise Water Availability Condition in Different Upazillas 41
Table 21: Variable-Wise Water Accessibility Condition in Different Unions of Bagerhat 47
Table 22: Variable Wise Water Accessibility Condition in Different Unions of Khulna 48
Table 23: Variable Wise Water Accessibility Condition in Different Unions of Satkhira 49
Table 24: Variable Wise Water Accessibility Condition in Different Upazillas 55
Table 25: Water Classification Based on Water Quality Index 56
Table 26: Water Quality Index Range of The Study Area (Dry Season) 56
Table 27: Water Quality Index Range of The Study Area (Wet Season) 57
Table 28: Percentage of Water Sources Based on Water Quality 57
Table 29 (A): Statistical Analysis of Physico-Chemical Water Quality Parameters for Ground Water 58
Table 29 (B): Statistical Analysis of Physico-Chemical Water Quality Parameters for Surface Water 59
Table 30(A): Correlation Matrix Between Water Quality Parameters for Dry Season 60

Assessment of Drinking Water Security in the Selected Areas of South-West Coastal Region of Bangladesh 8
 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

AAAQ Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability and Quality

AHP Analytic Hierarchy Process
APHA American Public Health Association
BADC Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation
BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
BCCSAP Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan
BDP Bangladesh Delta Plan
BMDA Barind Multipurpose Development Authority
BUET Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
BWA Bangladesh Water Act
BWDB Bangladesh Water Development Board
CDS Coastal Development Strategy
CZPo Coastal Zone Policy
DGPS Digital Global Positioning System
DO Dissolved Oxygen
DPHE Department of Public Health Engineering
EC Electric Conductivity
FC Fecal Coliform
FGD Focus Group Discussions
GIS Geographic Information System
GOB Government of Bangladesh
ICP-MS Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry
IDM Institute of Disaster Management
IDW Inverse Distance Weighting
IWFM Institute of Water and Flood Management
IWRM Integrated Water Resource Management
KII Key Informant Interview
KUET Khulna University of Engineering & Technology
LGED Local Government Engineering Department
ME Mean Error
MoEFCC Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
NAPA National Adaptation Programme of Action
NGO Non-Government Organization
NSDS National Sustainable Development Strategy
PSF Pond Sand Filtering
RMSE Root Mean Square Error
RO Reverse Osmosis
RWHS Rain Water Harvesting System
SDG Sustainable Development Goals
TDS Total Dissolved Solid
USGS U.S. Geological Survey
WARPO Water Resources Planning Organization
WASH Water and Sanitation Hygiene
WHO World Health Organization
WQI Water quality index

Assessment of Drinking Water Security in the Selected Areas of South-West Coastal Region of Bangladesh 9
 Chapter One
INTRODUCTION