The nepa palm home of Shobita, Bina, and Mohon Mondol home sits on a narrow strip of compressed silt near the confluence of a canal and the Pashur river in the delta of Bangladesh. They dip drinking water from a 2,000-liter rainwater collection tank the received last year from with help of the local welfare center.

The tank saves the Mondols from having to make a two or three kilometer walk to retrieve drinking and cooking water. Surrounded by a brackish and silty river, freshwater can be scarce, or hard to access. Constant erosion shrinks their peninsula every year. Surviving means regularly fixing the silt foundations that wear down in tides, or constructing levees in an attempt to keep the water out of their homes.

This tank and others like it in the village of Rekhamari, were built by Pathways to Prosperity, a non-governmental organization. Funding was provided by UKaid. Across Bangladesh many aid organizations work to implement water and sanitation projects, but there is still a huge need for proper utilities in urban and rural areas alike.  

In the Greenland slum, Khulna’s largest, one group has built or renovated toilets and water tanks to better suit the community. BRAC is the world’s largest NGO, and builds infrastructure projects across Bangladesh. This infrastructure is vital so that “people can live with dignity,” said Ashik Rubaiyat, the deputy field operations manager for BRAC in the Climate Bridge Fund secretariat.

The bridge fund is a German fund that works to provide projects like these to communities through BRAC. Each year, BRAC receives proposals from local NGOs for projects to implement. Funding each year is split 50/50 between BRAC and other NGOs for implementation. Instead of using the full $10 million, the fund invests in government bonds that receive 8.5% back each year for implementation, this way the funding is long lasting.

Countless interests are doing aid work in Bangladesh. CBF, UKaid, UNDP, the EU, Pathways to Prosperity, and Nabolok are some of the programs active in these areas. Many different groups are involved in the funding, planning, and implementation of any one project, yet it is easy to tell which group gave support because their logos are neatly displayed on each one.

In the 2020-21 fiscal year Bangladesh’s economic relations division reported a disbursement of USD 7.21 billion in foreign aid. Of this $430.96 million was distributed in grants and $6.78 billion was distributed in loans. This is an increase since 2016-17, which saw less than $4 billion in foreign aid.

While this aid is vital for people’s lives, there is not nearly enough. In cities facing issues posed by high population density, city planners are challenged to deal with massive development. Abir Ul Jabbar, the chief planning officer for the Khulna City Corporation, said “We are trying to build a more sustainable city, but not everything is in our hand.”

Marium and Morzina Begum have lived in the Greenland slum of Khulna. They both moved to the slum after their homes in Bagerhat were washed away in a riverbank collapse. BRAC recently built a two chamber toilet next to their homes. Previously they would have to use a makeshift toilet over a pond and risked contracting waterborne diseases in the process.

These new bathrooms even include a disposal for menstrual products which increases safety and freedom for young women. The bathrooms are located next to a bathhouse built by a separate NGO. They think the BRAC toilets are an improvement from the makeshift toilets they once used.

The toilets located next to Begum’s house serve around 15 households, but there are roughly 20,000 people living in the Greenland slum alone. Rubaiyat said that there isn’t enough capital coming in for the total infrastructure projects needed in the slums. He estimates there are maybe 100 to150 toilets in the whole Greenland slum. But with the CBF funding, BRAC can only implement about 15 to 20 projects a year.

“We don’t have enough capital to help them live with dignity,” Rubaiyat said.