Views from the field
Trip Start
Nov 10, 2004
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9
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Trip End
Apr 29, 2005
Khulna and Narsingdi, Bangladesh
Sunday, December 12, 2004
First Khulna.
On 30 November I started with NGO Forum in Debataha upazila, in Southwest of Bangladesh. We are in Satkhira district close to the Indian border, in Khulna division.
There I visited various villages.
One of them was Nischentapur village, Parullia union, Parulia district, where I joined the research team from NGO Forum for DWSS headed by Dr. Avizit Reaz Quazi. They were analysing the need and site for a deep tubewell in this saline area in Southern Bangladesh. Engineer Md. Refatul Islam completed the team, bringing in his technical expertise.
Avizit explained to the villagers what the team came to do. Men and women flocked around assistant researchers Ahmad Zaman Tariq and Md.Habebur Rahman. The first questions were asked. Then they were invited into one of the court yards. Cane mats and a few chairs came out and for an hour or so villagers replied to their questions. The answers were taped and used in written up the researchers check list.
See my pictures.
Avizit used a very small taping device, which linked up to his laptop at night translates audio directly into text. Even many of us in the Western world do not have this IT facility.
There were 15 deep tube wells in an area of six kilometres. The majority of them provide saline water. The villagers took the team to the already selected site for a new one. We also visited and tested some of the existing wells.
Narsingdi
Narsingdi is 65 kilometers or 2,5 hours driving outside of Dhaka. For one day I joined a local consultant who is documenting a case study on how private producers of sanitation hardware in Bangladesh (some 5,000 of them says various reports)are doing. This area was full of agriculture fields and golden rice files being harvested. We visted three of them.
We toured aroud for three full days. And I was pleaseanly surprised, the villages and households I visited looked much better than I remember from 25 years ago. There is more economic activity, especiall shrimp culture, there are more houses with tin roofs. It is of course the best time of the year in Bangladesh, where the floods have finished and the first crops are being harvested.
