Building Resilience for Drinking Water Shortages through Reverse Osmosis Technology in Coastal Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a newly applied feasible technology of fresh water source in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. The research has been undertaken to know the present water security related resilience status at Patharghata upazila of Barguna district in Bangladesh. The study also focuses to strengthen resilience in water security for the coastal households by using reverse osmosis technology. The people of the study area face safe drinking water shortages problem all year round but during dry season the problem becomes more acute. The study was conducted using questionnaire survey method, focus group discussion (FGD), water sample collection and testing to find out the water security status of the study area. During questionnaire survey, mainly the head of the households were interviewed. Drinking water samples were collected from the randomly selected households of the study area for laboratory testing. The present status of drinking water sources, respondent’s perception of drinking water facilities, distance of water sources, general information of the pond, water collection system, water samples test result and health risk problems were assessed to measure the water security status of the area. From the survey and test results, it reveals that the people of the area facing severe fresh drinking water crisis. It is found that about 62% households of the study area are in water insecurity problem. A generalized feasibility test of a reverse osmosis plant was done which indicates that the reverse osmosis system is more technical and economically feasible drinking water source among other technologies of the study area. The system can also play a great role as a disaster risk reduction (DRR) based solution of drinking water shortages for building water security related resilience at coastal household level in Bangladesh.