Bangladesh to Receive $2.1bn for Safe Drinking Water

Bangladesh is set to receive around $2.1 billion in financing from UNICEF, the World Bank, WaterAid and other organisations to help ensure safe drinking water for people across the country, Local Government Minister Dr Abdul Moin Khan said Thursday.

He made the remarks after a meeting with a UNICEF delegation at the ministry in Dhaka.

The minister said the meeting focused on how safe drinking water could be made available to Bangladesh’s approximately 180 million people.

“Water is another name for life. People cannot survive without it. But when water is contaminated or carries harmful microorganisms, it can become a cause of death,” he said.

He said ensuring access to safe drinking water remains a major challenge for Bangladesh and that the government discussed ways to work with the United Nations and other development partners to address the problem.

The minister also highlighted the country’s growing water-related challenges, particularly in the northern and southern regions.

He said Bangladesh has abundant water resources, but many rivers are drying up. Water withdrawals upstream are reducing river flows, contributing to desertification-like conditions in northern areas.

Reduced river flows are also affecting the southern region, where declining freshwater flows are allowing salinity from the Bay of Bengal to move further inland.

As a result, access to safe drinking water has become a serious problem for people in coastal areas, he said.

Moin Khan said the government’s responsibility was to ensure access to safe drinking water and that discussions had also focused on the financing required to achieve that goal through cooperation with international organisations.

Asked about the cost of the proposed projects, the minister said the estimated financing would come from multiple organisations, not UNICEF alone.

“Taken together, the projects we discussed today will amount to around $2.1 billion,” he said, equivalent to roughly Tk25,000 crore.

The minister said Bangladesh had received substantial support from both bilateral and multilateral development partners.

However, he acknowledged that the country had not always been able to use such assistance effectively and said foreign financing was also declining as developed countries faced their own economic challenges.

UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh Jillian Melsop said the organisation would continue working with Bangladesh to ensure safe and clean drinking water for everyone.