PROCESS DOCUMENTATION OF

JOINT ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN OF THE CARE RVCC PROJECT, UTTARAN AND PANI COMMITTEE

“CAMAPIGN FOR SALINE FREE DRINKING

WATER IN SOUTHWEST BANGLADESH”

A. K. M. Mamunur Rashid
Advocacy Coordinator
RVCC Project, CARE Bangladesh

CARE Bangladesh Khulna Field Office

House# 14, Road# 113, Khalishpur Housing Estate
Khulna-9000, Bangladesh
Email: carervcc@khulna.bangla.net
Telephone: 88-041-761250-104

Date: 27th June 2004

 Background and Introduction

A small coastal country of the south central Asia, Bangladesh is located in the delta of the Ganges
and the Brahmaputra in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Bangladesh has an area of
143,998 sq. km, and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The country lies
between latitudes 20o30’ N and 26o15’ N and longitudes 88o30’ E and 92o15’ E. to the south, it has an
irregular coastline fronting the Bay of Bengal and is bordered by Myanmar on the southeast. The
Indian states of West Bengal to the west and north, and Assam to the north and east comprise the
border between Bangladesh and India.

The basic features of climate of Bangladesh are sub-tropical monsoon climate, wide seasonal
variations in rainfall, moderately warm temperatures, and high humidity. Climate generally uniform
throughout entire country. Subject to severe natural disasters, such as floods, tropical cyclones,
tornadoes, and tidal bores.

Bangladesh has one of the most densely populated, low-lying, coastal zones in the world, with 20-25
million people living within a one-meter elevation from the high tide level. The coastline in Bangladesh
totals about 735 km, of which 125 km are covered by the Sunderbans - the major natural mangrove
forest. The sectors of Bangladesh coastal resources identified as most vulnerable to climate change
and sea level change are agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, forestry, and tourism. The possible
effects of sea level change are inundation, salt-water intrusion, flash floods, droughts, and storm
surges.

Though Bangladesh has least contribution to the global climate change but are susceptible to be
affected worst due to its geographical position, high density of population, low-level literacy,
agriculture sector dominated national economy, high prevalence of natural disasters, poor per capita
income and political strife.

Digital terrain modeling

techniques have been used to
display the Bangladesh scenarios.
A three dimensional view of the
country has been overlaid with the
current coastline and major rivers
and potential future sea levels at
1,5 meters.

Since this scenario was

calculated in 1989, the expected
rate of sea level rise has been
modified. At present expected
rates, this stage will occur in
about 150 years from now.

Land area Population 1989 Population 2030

Scenario
'000km2 '000'000 est. '000'000 est.
150 cm 22 (16%) 17 (15%) 34 (15%)
Bangladesh total 134 (100%) 112 (100%) 224 (100%)

Reduced dry-season freshwater supply from upstream sources resulting from climate change could
further exacerbate salinity conditions in the coastal area of Bangladesh (IPCC 1998) [The Regional
Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press].
Global water scenario
If we see the total distribution of the global we knew that grossly 97% water are ocean water,
and only 3% are other and subsequently these Fig 1.
are only sweetwaters. Of these 3% sweetwater,
77% belongs to icecaps, glaciers and inland seas,
22% ground water and only 1% are other
(atmosphere and soil moisture 39%, lakes 61%,
rivers .25%). Due to climate change, icecaps,
glaciers are melting and sea water is intrusing
further to the north, subsequently sweet water
percentage will be reduced more and more in
near future. Only good hope for sweet water is the increase of rain. There is a tiny line of
hope to use rainwater for drinking and other sweet water sources. This problem will be highly
risky due to increase of population in developing countries who could be the worst sufferer of
climate change. Before talking more about saline water, we need to clarify a few things; for
example, what do mean by saline water?
Table 1: Distribution of Global Water by Percentage
Water source Water volume, in cubic miles Percent of total water
Oceans 317,000,000 97.24%
Icecaps, Glaciers 7,000,000 2.14%
Ground water 2,000,000 0.61%
Fresh-water lakes 30,000 0.009%
Inland seas 25,000 0.008%
Soil moisture 16,000 0.005%
Atmosphere 3,100 0.001%
Rivers 300 0.0001%
Total water volume 326,000,000 100%

Source: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Water that is saline contains significant amounts (referred to as "concentrations") of

dissolved salts. In this case, the concentration is the amount (by weight) of salt in water, as
expressed in "parts per million" (ppm). If water has a concentration of 10,000 ppm of
dissolved salts, then one percent (10,000 divided by 1,000,000) of the weight of the water
comes from dissolved salts. Here are a few parameters for saline water:
• Fresh water - Less than 1,000 ppm
• Slightly saline water - From 1,000 ppm to 3,000 ppm
• Moderatly saline water - From 3,000 ppm to 10,000 ppm
• Highly saline water - From 10,000 ppm to 35,000 ppm
By the way, ocean water contains about 35,000 ppm of salt.
Fig 2.
On the basis of above-mentioned scenario, a great
question comes to us that how much water is usable by
humans? It is said that only .3% of global water is
drinkable by human being. Majority of these usable water
sources is groundwater and a very few are freshwater
lakes and freshwater rivers.
Bangladesh water scenario
Bangladesh is popularly known as country of river. Most of the rivers carry sweet water from
the Himalayans, Manosh Sarobar and falls to Bay of Bangle. In the climate change
discourses it is now very accepted that Bangladesh will be one of the most vulnerable
country for climate change. Bangladesh is highly dependent on the regional water
distributions. Drought, flood and salinity are three aspects, which directly related with the
water sharing with other countries (mainly with India). During rainy season, when
Bangladesh need small amount of water, then due to the basin, water of whole basin passes
through the rivers and due to the siltation the capacity of these rivers has already been
reduced which subsequently cause flood. During dry season, when Bangladesh needs
sweet water from north, then the flow is very low, and due to low rainfall during the same
season, scarcity of water become serious and increases drought. In the same season, due
to low flow of fresh water during dry season coupled with sea water level increase the
salinity intruse further to north.

Another big concern in Bangladesh is the contamination. The water specially drinking water
is increasingly contaminated by arsenic, bromin, magnesium and other trace elements and
by salinity and industrial pollutions.

Fig 3.
Salinity affected population in southwest Bangladesh by district

Satkhira 45 42 10 3
Khulna 37 63
District

Bagerhat 87 13
Gopalganj 20 80
Narail 16 57 27
Jessore 12 19 69

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
High Percentage of salinity affected population by Districts
Medium
Low
Not affected
Source: Profile of the District Climate Change Vulnerabilities (Salinity, Water logging and Flood) in Southwest Bangladesh, RVCC Project, 2004

Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change (RVCC) project’s compiled vulnerability profile of

six districts in Southwest Bangladesh refer that 90% people of Satkhira district, 100% people
of Khulna district, 100% people of Bagerhat district, 20% people of Gopalganj district, 73%
of Narail district and 31% of Jessore district are suffering with salinity. The worst suffering
districts are Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira district (RVCC, 2004). Almost 5 million people
are suffering with drinking water problem due to salinity in drinking water.

Taking the above mentioned condition it is obvious that drinking water problem is not just a
short time problem in the southwest Bangladesh and it could be worst due to climate
change. Salinity is a salient feature in southwest Bangladesh along with other water related
problems (arsenic, iron, bromin, magnesium and industrial pollutions).
 Detail Process of Advocacy on Saline Free Drinking Water

A. ISSUE SELECTION

5 million people of southwest Bangladesh are suffering with saline drinking water. The
scenario of the Shayamnagr, Assasuni, Kaliganj, Debhata, Tala of Satkhira, Koyra,
Paikgacha, Dacope, Batiaghata, Dumuria of Khulna, Morelganj, Sharonkhola, Mongla,
Rampal of Bagerhat are the worst suffering Upazillas in southwest Bangladesh, where
ancient’s mariners quatation comes truth “water water everywhere, no water to drink”. RVCC
project has conducted a vulnerability assessment with the people of southwest Bangladesh
through 78 FGDs (RVCC, 2003). It was observed that salinity was the one of the major
vulnerability contexts of the poor people in the three districts: Khulna, Satkhira and
Bagerhat. It was also reported during the Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior (KAB)
Women and Children are taking responsibility
of collecting saline free water from 2-5 km far

study (RVCC 2003) that salinity is becoming a daily truth to the people of Narail and
Gopalganj as salinity is intruising further to the north. Due to reduction of the
freshwater flow from the farakka, reduction of the rainfall during rainy season and
sea level rise, the risk of northern districts to the Greater Khulna (Khulna, Satkhira
and Bagerhat) increases to be inundated by the saline water. A lot more people in
future will be affected by the salinity in drinking water in this region. In the
vulnerability assessment this came truth, as the people perceived this as a present
and well-being aspect that people are
vulnerable to cope with. Following the
findings of vulnerability assessment, a
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)
team started to do some in-depth
analysis of the issue (drinking water
crisis in the context of increasing
salinity in southwest Bangladesh)
(Uttaran, 2002). CARE RVCC Project
and its partner NGO, UTTARAN
jointly conducted 4 Focus Group
Discussion (FGD), 4 Force Field Analysis (FFA), 4 Mobility Map, and 10 semi structured
interview in Satkhira District to find out the livelihood problem associated with salinity. Male
groups were predominantly focused on removing siltation and ensuring upstream flow.
Female groups predominantly focused on their daily livelihood problem: drinking water
problem in the context of increase in salinity. Women portrayed their severe problem as they
have to tackle the drinking water issue based on the traditional household division of labour.
Women have to collect water from two to six kilometers away from their home. Girls are
dropping from schools or limited attendance in school due to water collection as their
mothers have to cook before 12:00 when their husbands will come back from field for taking
lunch. A common feature in Shayamnagar, Assasuni, Koyra, Paikgacha, Dacope and
Mongla is that there is continuous quarrel between husband and wife for more time waste for
collecting waters. To avoid this situation, collection of water at night is also increasing, which
made the women more vulnerable to be harassed by the wicked man on the way of water
plant to home. Increasingly, women of four or five families go together to collect water and
wait for the whole group to avoid such insecurity. The ponds from where the women are
collecting sweet water are not clean, looks very dirty, women believes that through filter,
these water are becoming purified, which is not. Thus this water cannot meet the standard of
safe water and causing water borne diseases among the children and other adults. When
PRA team asks them why are you drinking this water? They replied through another
question “can we drink saline water?” RVCC and Uttaran took the question into their account
and having quick look of the national policies it was found that policy also fails to give this
answer. Therefore, this question was taken to be dealt as the advocacy issue of the RVCC
Project.

Therefore, salinity and its effect on potable water issue was selected as the advocacy issue
to be tackled. Additional issues identified during the FGDs and FFAs included: shrimp
cultivation and decrease in freshwater flow from upstream due to siltation. Taking into
consideration the duration of the project and the priority of females’ practical needs, CARE
RVCC and UTTARAN selected the crisis in potable water in the context of increasing salinity
as the advocacy issue to focus on.

B. LOCAL LEVEL NETWORKING/ALLIANCE BUILDING WITH CIVIL SOCIETY

The advocacy partner of RVCC Project, UTTARAN discussed the salinity caused drinking
water crisis with Pani Committee a civil society organization active in southwest Bangladesh
where college and school teachers, lawyears, journalists, social workers, and activists work
together to solve the regional water related problems. They have run a social movement in
past to remove waterlogging through taking the people’s knowledge into consideration to
introduce working to remove the water logging in Jessore and Khulna. They also succeeded
to incorporate people’s identified method (Tidal River Management) into the Water
Development Board’s methodologies to solve the water logging in southwest region.
Following the discussion with Uttaran, Pani Committee showed interest to work with Uttaran
and CARE RVCC voluntarily for grassroot mobilization and advocacy for saline free drinking
water. Pani Committee then started to visit the saline affected areas in Khulna and Satkhira
districts. After visiting the salinity affected areas, Pani Committee and Uttaran agreed and
decided to work in 8 Upazillas: Shayamnagar, Kaliganj, Asasuni and Debhata in Satkhira
district, and Koyra, Paikgacha and Dumuria in Khulna district. Though, Dacope, Batiaghata
in Satkhira district, Mongla, Rampal, Morelganj and Sharonkhola in Bagerhat district are also
affected by salinity and people of these Upazilla are also suffering with saline drinking water,
but RVCC project is pilot in its nature and Pani Committee and Uttaran has existing work in
the mentioned 8 Upazillas, the area was limited for advocacy work. Pani Committee
reformed their central committee taking three members from each of 8 Upazilla and other
professionals and reputed social workers a total of 41 members. Previously, there was no
Upazilla level civil society platform to work on water issue. One of the needs was to form
Upazilla Pani Committee in 8 Upazilla. Responsibility was given to the three members of the
respective Upazilla in the Central Body to form a full committee in Upazilla level. The
committee was formed through a public meeting in the respective Upazilla. The Central
Committee along with Upazilla steering committee (three members representing the Upazilla
in the central Pani Committee), a public meeting was called in each Upazilla. Interested
social workers, activists, journalists, farmers, teachers and other non-political people were
called in the meeting and Upazilla Pani Committee was formed. The Upazilla Pani
Committee held 6 workshop in 6 Upazilla: Shayamnagar, Assasuni, Debhata, Kaliganj,
Koyra and Paikgacha. The objectives of the workshop was to share the PRA findings and
took the opinion of the different stakeholders on the problem, possible solutions, possible
sources of sweet water and possible actions to be done. Central Pani Committee sits
bimonthly and reviews the activities of the period. Upazilla Pani Committee sits quarterly and
review the progress of activities in their respective Upazilla and report back to the Central
Committee. Central committee considers the findings and recommendation of the Upazilla
Pani Committee and in critical situation of social movement supports the Upazilla Pani
Committee. Major responsibilities of the Upazilla Pani Committee are: to organize the rally
and submit memorandum to the Upazilla Nirbahi Officer (UNO), to dialogue with the local
Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) and UNO regularly regarding the problem,
aware the mass people on the problem, facilitate the students and others to write letter to
the Prime Minister, help or support the students water forum in their respective area to
organize discussions and debates on water in their annual ceremony or in any special
occasion. The major responsibilities of the Central Pani Committee are: to coordinate the all
Upazilla Pani Committee, support them when they need for grassroot mobilization and
memorandum submission, to give representation to the policy makers, do the media
campaign, facilitate and organize the seminar, roundtable discussions, to aware the
influential persons about the water problem. The Central Pani Committee also liaison with
other civil society organizations active in the region and at national level to make more
people involved with the social movement for solving regional water problems. Central Pani
Committee has made such good linkages with Greater Khulna Unnayan Sangram
Coordination Committee. They helped Pani Committee and Uttaran to organize the Seminar
in Khulna on the “Salinity in Drinking Water and Policy Responses”. The following are the
brief description of the activities for the local level allience building and capacity building of
Advocacy Campaign Partners and other RVCC PNGOs.

B.1. Meeting and workshop with the NGOs and Civil Society organizations

Uttaran sits bi-monthly in the Pani

Committee’s meeting. To date 5 meetings of
Pani Committee held (20/07/03, 22/08/03,
30/12/03, 11/02/2004 and 9/05/04). Major
decisions of these meeting and follow up
were following.
(1) Formation of Upazilla Pani Committee
through public meeting.
(2) Organize the Upazilla level workshops. Pani Committee sits regular for developing strategy to make the national
water related policies more pro-poor through social movement
(3) Organize Satkhira and Khulna Seminar.
(4) Formation of Student’s Water Forum
(5) Include women members in the central committee and during formation of Upazilla Pani
Committee include female members as much as possible.

Following the decision of Central Pani Committee meeting, 6 workshops held in 6 Upazilla to
take the people’s opinion about the drinking water problem in context of increase in salinity
in their respective Upazilla. These workshops held in Shayamangar (10th September 2003),
Assasuni (16-17 September 03), Debhata (18 September 03), Kaliganj (19 September 03),
Paikgacha (24-25 September 03) and Koyra (25th October 03). The local Pani Committee,
Central Pani Committee and Uttaran organized all these workshops. In each workshop
average 55 people attended and provided their opinion about the issue. The structure of the
workshops was first to grasp the problem
associated with drinking water (but during
workshop it also extends to the use of saline
water in other livelihood aspects), second what
could be the possible solutions for saline free
drinking water and finally what need to do if we
want to achieve the solutions. Suffering people,
teachers, local journalists, social workers, Union
Parishad Chairman and Members, NGO
workers, political workers, civil society members, government officials and Pani Committee
members attended the workshops. The workshops were very successful and findings of the
workshops were considered during the design of advocacy campaign. One of the big
benefits of these workshops was to get other people involved and committed to work on this
issue. All participants (other than suffering people) committed that they will help the social
movement for saline free drinking water in their Upazilla. Government officials also showed
positive attitudes to help the civil society best possible from their end. Major findings of these
workshops are summarized in bellow table 1.
 Table 1: Summary of Findings of 6 Workshops Held on Potable Water Issues
Livelihood Problems Associated with Saline Water Possible Actions
Social Environmental Physical/Health Economic Solutions Suggested
Neighborhood Decrease in trees, Women and Loss of at least Local Raise awareness
relationships are plants, herbs and children have to 4 working hours government to among all levels if
becoming weak vegetation walk average 3-5 in a day take necessary people about the
and quarrels Decrease of kilometers at least 2 actions for problem
increasing agricultural times per day. This Some formulating
Quarrel increases products makes them weaker households projects on Raise people’s
among husband because they carry have to pay for drinking water voice to the
and wife heavy water pot water carried government to solve
Contamination of
from distant Locate sweet the issue
Women and freshwater sources Inadequate water
places water sources in
young girls are intake is common the region and Appeal to politicians
harassed during which has health
Loss of freshwater Cannot be plan to utilize and the Prime
carrying of water effects
species involved in those sources Minister for kind
from distant place Household and
income attention to the
Students' (mostly personal hygiene is Control shrimp problem
girls) education is House structures becoming tough to Generating cultivation - if
interrupted due to becoming less maintain activities possible, stop it Hold a public
responsibility of sustainable Skin diseases, Increase in meeting in every
carrying drinking diarrhea, dysentery, market Build more PSF, Union and Thana
water fever, headache dependency RWHP, reserved
and weakness are because of ponds and rural Change the rules of
Migration is increasing increased pipelines to shrimp cultivation
increasing Women and salinity1 ensure saline and
Males are facing children are arsenic-free Reserve/protect
difficulty to get suffering from Loss of drinking water some ponds
suitable wife malnutrition employment through community
because parents opportunity More research initiatives
living in Pregnant women
into possible
freshwater areas face more Increase of
solutions Appeal to UP
do not want to difficulties poverty
Chairman to
give their Raise awareness allocate more water
daughter in Cleaning clothes is Loss of animal of mass people plants in the area
marriage to a almost impossible husbandry through educated
man living in a persons living in
saline water area the rural areas
1
Examples: farmers cannot grow rice seedlings in saline soil; people need to buy fish because public water bodies have been
taken over for shrimp production

Uttaran has its previous NGO network namely SHONJOG (which has been formed with 40
local NGOs). At the beginning of the campaign, 20 of these NGOs are interested to work
with the potable water issue. Consists of Executive Directors and Coordinators of these
NGOs a Climate Change Awareness Committee (CCAC) was formed. The CCAC sat once
and after that meeting it came to the realization that the main purpose of the committee is to
aware the rural people about climate change and
its effects on drinking water. As Uttaran prepared
a drama and solo folk song to aware the mass
people, and a few members of CCAC is also
included in the Pani Committee, therefore, this
issue was discussed during two days campaign
design workshop, and decided not to continue
this committee as this is not much effective for
social movement than to go with civil society but
they will remain as campaign partners for saline free drinking water and will assist and help
the Upazilla Pani Committee to build awareness among mass people and organize rally and
procession.
Uttaran has build good rapport with national level organizations like IUCN, SPARSO,
Geological Survey Department, Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS), NGO
Forum, Federation of Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh (FEJB) and provide regular
information to them through sending of reports, articles, booklets, still photo and newsletter
(prepared by Coastal Development Partnership (CDP), a PNGO of RVCC). Uttaran also
provide information to the advisory committee of the RVCC project via its representative on
the committee.

B.2. Capacity Building of RVCC Partners and Advocacy Campaign Partners

It was realized that to carry out advocacy activities
for saline free drinking water, campaign partners
need to build capacity on doing advocacy.
Training was a direct input for awareness raising
and skill development for advocacy campaign
partners. Uttaran has organized two batches
training (on advocacy for capacity building of
RVCC PNGOs staff members and Advocacy

Campaign Partners staff members including

Uttaran staff. A total of 50 staff are trained through
3-day training sessions.

8 PNGOs, other than advocacy campaign

partners, have some work in community level. This
community level initiative needs some advocacy
skills. Uttaran provided the training to the 8 PNGO
staff on art of advocacy and that helped them to understand the complex of strategies at
community level even to the regional and national level. Gained skill from advocacy training
of Uttaran, PNGO will be able to handle their advocacy issue at various levels.

C. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

C.1. Shallow Aquifer Study

A shallow aquifer survey was conducted in
Satkhira and Khulna Districts to identify
possible sweet water aquifers. The Pani
Committee and Climate Change Awareness
Committee proposed this study. The study was
necessary for doing advocacy to know the
possible alternative sources of arsenic and
saline free drinking water in the saline zone.
Before, perusing the drinking water agenda to
the policy makers, Pani Committee and Uttaran need to know the shallow level aquifers
condition. The The study was limited to secondary literature review, satellite image of the
condition of aquifers and only 4 experimental borings in two Upazilla (Shayamnagar and
Tala). The Deputy Director of Bangladesh Geological Survey Department Mr. Reshad
Mohammad Ekram Ali conducted the study. The draft of the study was review by the RVCC
Project and Utatran and the comments made that the boring was very limited, to reach to
more comprehensive conclusion, more boring should be done. It was therefore,
recommended that due to limitation of fund for study in Utatran, this will be recommended to
the Bangladesh Geological Survey Department to conduct more studies on the shallow and
deep water aquifers in the region for finding out possible sources of saline and arsenic free
drinking water.

C.2. Policy Review

Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, Technical Advisor of RVCC Project, has conducted review of 5 policies
related to drinking water issue (Ahsan, 2004b). In addition, he also reviewed 12 relevant
national policies (Ahsan, 2004a) whether these policies are addressing climate change
adaptations or not. The following policies are reviewed intensively for drinking water
purpose.

 National Water Policy

 National Water and Sanitation Policy
 Proposed Integrated Coastal Zone Policy
 Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
 National Water Management Plan (draft)

The policy review is expected to be published as a separate document by early September

2004.

This policy review will be used by UTTARAN to finalize policy recommendations. During
policy recommendation, they will also consider the findings of the aquifer study, Focus
Group Discussion (FGD) and Force Field Analysis (FFA) findings, and Upazilla level
workshops. Based on those policy recommendations, UTTARAN will submit memorandums1
and papers with policy recommendations to different fora (Parliamentary Committee for
Water, Parliamentary Committee for Local Government and Rural Development, Department
of Public Health Engineering, Water Board, Water Resources Planning Organization,
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, etc.)2. The policy review is now in
draft form and Pani Committee has asked for a summary of the report in Bangla that all 350

1
Memorandum is similar to a petition in the Canadian context. In Bangladesh, a memorandum
(petition) signed by large number of people is submitted to a Deputy Coordinator or higher GoB
official, after a rally or procession is held.
2
The advocacy tools finalized by UTTARAN and Pani Committee include: letter campaign,
representation to the policy makers, memorandum submission to UNO and Prime Minister, seminar,
round table discussion, newspaper articles, public meeting and lobbying.
members of Central and Upazilla Pani Committee members can read the reviews summary
and become aware about the policy gap.

D. DESIGN OF ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN

RVCC Project, Pani Committee and

Uttaran jointly organized a 2-day long
workshop (12-13 November 2003) to
design an advocacy campaign focusing on
the potable water crisis in the context of
increasing salinity in southwest
Bangladesh. The advocacy campaign
design of the CARE RVCC Project, Uttaran
and the Pani Committee is included in
Annex 1.

After reviewing the existing national

policies, national multi year plans and Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and using
the result of aquifer study along with findings of the 6 workshops held at Upazilla level and
FGDs & FFAs, the campaign partners set the objectives of the advocacy campaign:
To incorporate drinking water issues in the context of increasing of salinity in southwest
region to the national water policy and WASTAN policy.
1. Before finalizing national water management plan (NWMP) incorporate salinity
laden drinking water issue into plan.
In the workshop, after setting objectives following target audience were identified for
advocacy:
• Prime Minister
• LGRD Ministry
• DPHE
• Water Resource Ministry
• WARPO-DG
• Local Administration- Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner, Upazilla Nirbahi Officer
• Member of Parliament
• International Donors (UNDP, WORLD BANK, ADB, DANIDA, NORAD, USAID,
DFID, CIDA)
• Media (TV, Radio and Press)
• Local Elected Bodies (LEBs)
• Local DPHE Office
• Rich Individuals
• Suffering People

In the workshop, an important task was to define the key messages of the advocacy
campaign. This was very important and needed to be clear to all campaign partners. Draft
messages were developed in the workshop and were reviewed by the sub committee for
message finalization, RVCC Project, the advisory committee members of RVCC Project and
CARE Bangladesh’s Rights and Social Justice and thereafter it was finalized. The
recommendation was to make two columns for message, one for key message and another
for supplementary message (refer to annex 1). The key messages per actor are following
 Table 2: List of key messages per audience identified as target for advocacy
Actor Key Message
Prime Minister Saline laden drinking water problem is overlooked in relevant national policies
(National Water Policy and National Water and Sanitation Policy) and this
issue needs to be incorporated in the policies.
LGRD Ministry Saline laden drinking water problem is overlooked in National Water and
DPHE Sanitation Policy; and this issue needs to be incorporated in the policy.
Water Resource Saline laden drinking water problem is overlooked in National Water Policy;
Ministry and this issue needs to be incorporated in the policy.
WARPO-DG Potable water issue in National Water Management Plan is only addressed for
Khulna City but the worst sufferers are the rural poor people adjacent to the
coast of sea. This overlooking should be reconsidered and rural people’s
problem due to increasing in salinity issue need to be incorporated in the
National Water Management Plan.
Local Administration The practical problem of people needs to forward to the ministries for proper
attention of key policy decision makers.

Member of The problem of your own constituency needs to raise properly in the
Parliament parliament and to influence the parliament to incorporate salinity issue in
relevant national policies and action plans (ex. National Water Management
Plan)
International Donors Climate Change and its effect on water resources, particularly potable water
crisis in coastal zone of Bangladesh is inadequately addressed in development
goals/programs/projects; this issue need to be considered during future
development strategy formulation or programming.
Media (TV, Radio Broadcast or project the issue to the larger audience in a sensitive way that
and Press) different people became positive and proactive regarding this issue.
Local Elected Raise the salinity caused potable water issue to the Member of Parliament.
Bodies (LEB’s)
Local DPHE Office Distribute the water facilities to the poorer and most affected people.
Install the water plant in a suitable location, which is accessible to the most of
the users; for doing so, area could be identified through PRA with the intended
users.
Rich Individuals Please raise or donate fund for ensuring community fresh water supply for the
rural people.
Sufferer People Raise your voice to the LEB’s, MPs, Local Administrators and Local Service
Providers.

The following tools were finalized for the advocacy campaign up to the March 2005. Based
on experience during this time, Pani Committee will determine other tools in necessary in
future.

 Grass-roots Mobilization (awareness raising through cultural activities, posters,

stickers, booklet, group session, public meeting and procession, rally, school session
and wall writing)
 Persuasion and Lobbying (representation to the ministers and government high
officials, memorandum submission, public attention advertisement in newspaper,
writing articles in newspaper and popular journals, letter campaigning, workshop,
seminar and round table discussions)
 Media Campaign (press-conference, field visit of journalists and reporting on visit,
talk show in TV, talk show in Radio)
E. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ADVOCACY TOOLS DEVELOPED IN CAMPAIGN

E.1. Awareness Raising Program: Material Development, Cultural Activities

This program is helping for awareness raising of mass people, community leaders, social
volunteers and NGO staff. Details are given below:

Material Development: A booklet is developed by Uttaran

and Pani Committee on “In Search of Potable Water: In the
context of climate change and increase in salinity”. Three
thousands copies of this booklet was published. This booklet
will be distributed among political parties, civil society, locally
elected bodies, journalists, government officials,
academicians, NGOs, schools and colleges, Pani Committee
members, students water forum members, Member of
Parliament, WARPO, DPHE, Water Board, Press Clubs,
national newspapers editors and senior journalists,
parliamentary committee members for Water and LGRD
ministries, and senior government officials. This booklet
contains the global and regional drinking water contexts, causes of water problems,
livelihood problems of women and children due to water scarcity, possible solutions to the
problems, policy responses to the problem and call of social movement for the saline free
water rights. A flip chart draft is finalized (developed and field tested) and will be printed
soon. This flip chart will be printed for using at different stage of the project for program
running support. For example, for providing orientation at the grassroots level particularly
NGOs staff and organized group levels so that information on saline drinking water and
related problems reached to them easily.

Cultural Activities: UTTARAN has gained experience that traditional cultural activities are
very popular in the rural context. UTTARAN used this media for awareness raising and
opinion formation at the grassroots level. UTTARAN
organized folk drama and solo folk song for
increasing mass awareness on potable water crisis in
the context of increasing salinity as an effect of
climate change so that people understand the issue
and think on
probable
adaptation
mechanism and act favorably towards policy change. 17
shows of folk drama and 32 shows of solo folk song are
performed to date. A total of 5720 male and 3830 female
enjoyed the folk drama, and 3880 male and 3820 female
enjoyed the solo folk song, which was performed separately. The lyrics of folksong and script of
popular theater is based on potable water crisis in the context of increasing salinity. The script
and performances has been developed and field-tested and then started to perform.

UTTARAN organized orientation to the school and college students and teachers as a part of
awareness raising and capacity building program. Since students and teachers play a crucial
role at the family level and societal level so it would be effective for promoting the issue.
Moreover, UTTARAN would select some teachers with other civil society individuals or
representatives for conducting advocacy from the local level to national level for policy
change, policy adaptation or implementation. UTTARAN selected only one Upazilla
(Shayamnagar, one of the severe affected area due to salinity) and 15 educational
institutions as pilot for these activities. To date, UTTARAN organized 6 orientation sessions
to 6 educational institutions in Shyamanagar Upazilla and a total of 804 boys and 632 girls
received orientation on potable water crisis. As an outcome of such orientation, students’
water forum was formed with interested senior students (college) who will help Pani
Committee and other students during letter campaign, which will be started from July 2004
and will continue upto September 2004.

E.2. Coordination with Awareness Campaign

RVCC Project is working with Rupantar for raising awareness about climate change
vulnerabilities, its causes, and possible adaptation strategies. DDJ and AOSED is raising
awareness among the school students, DDJ
is also conducting climate change group
awareness session in the credit groups and
courtyard groups, GUS is working with 30
CBOs in Shyamnagar Upazilla to raise
awareness among the vulnerable people,
CDP is collecting information and
disseminating those to national and
international level audience, Rupantar is
raising awareness among the rural people
through Pot Song and Folk Drama, RVCC is developing flip charts, radio spots and also
going to produce posters on successful adaptation strategies for awareness raising. Uttaran
is also benefited to join in the campaign for better coordination between the two campaigns.
In the school module and easy reading book, water scarcity is portrayed as an effect of
climate change, in CDP’s newsletter, more than one articles are published on water scarcity
in the southwest Bangladesh, CDP is also going to publish a newsletter on salinity which will
cover also the potable water issue, DDJ also aware the people of Morelganj and
Sharonkhola through their group session on potable water crisis and Rupantar’s pot song
and drama also talk about the potable water issue. As a whole, there is good amount of
awareness raising is being done by the awareness partners which is helping UTTARAN to
mobilize the people. UTTARAN is getting very good support from the GUS’s CBO network,
as this is one of the worst problematic area for saline drinking water. CBOs are supporting
by rally and procession to the UNO through the Pani Committee. On the other hand,
UTTARAN is also giving climate change vulnerability messages in their potable water related
drama and folk song, which is helping people to understand the climate change
vulnerabilities along with water vulnerabilities.

E.3. Dialogue seminar with the Civil Society, Local Elected Bodies (LEBs), Media,
Politicians, and Bureaucrats (at regional level)

UTTARAN organized seminars in Satkhira and

Khulna on “Drinking Water Crisis and Policy
Response”. In Satkhira Workshop (held in May
22, 2004), 150 people attended from different
background (UP representatives, Pani
Committee members, academicians, journalists,
political leaders from ruling and opposition
parties, NGO staff, teachers, lawyers, and
government officials). The workshop recommended that issue should be raised to the
political parties and MPs need to be approached with the issue. The civil societies role was
recommended as important to give pressure to the Member of Parliament. In Khulna
Seminar (held in 12 June 2004) about 120 people attended. The seminar was very fruitful in
terms of getting more people with the
campaign. Greater Khulna Development Action
Coordination Committee (Brihattar Khulna
Unnayan Sangram Sammanay Committee) the
largest civil society platform in the greater
Khulna assisted the Campaign and also
committed that they are in full support to this
campaign, and will continue their assistance to
the activities to the campaign. They also told
that they would feel more comfort to working
with civil society rather than having NGOs name in the banner an organizer or financer.
These two seminars were very fruitful and a lot of recommendations came from the
seminars. The Campaign is planning to incorporate the recommendations during formulation
of the strategy for the next year.

E.4. Round Table Discussion/Dialogue with the Civil Society, Media, Politicians and
Bureaucrats (at national level)
Nothing happen with this. Should I drop the issue for this period?
E.5. Media campaign

UTTARAN hold an orientation

session to the journalists of
Satkhira district to aware them
about climate change and its
effects on drinking water with an
intention that journalists will
write more articles on this issue. A
total of 26 journalists were
imparted training on the climate
change and possible effects on
drinking water. After that
orientation to date 12 things are

published in the local newspaper (news and articles newspaper) and 2 things in national
newspaper (news and articles in the daily Independent). The Pani Committee in Khulna
Press Club also organized a press conference in 10th December 2003 (Human Rights Day)
and that was widely circulated in 9 local newspapers (Purbanchal, Janmobhumi, Janobarta,
Tattho, Gramer Kagoj, Kafela, Proborton, Loksamaj, and Anirban) and 5 national
newspapers (Prothom Alo, Sangbad, Janakantha, Jugantar and NewAge).

D.5. Persuasion/lobbying

UTTARAN and Pani Committee started to lobby with the different actors from local level to
national level particularly policy level actors to pursue them for taking alternative people’s
demand in formulating and/or amending existing policy and procedure. Pani Committee hold
a dialogue with Mr. Hossain Zillur Rahman and Mesbah Kamal who were actively involved in
preparing the IPRSP. RVCC Project’s Advocacy Coordinator made good linkages with the
chairman of Parliamentary Committee for LGRD Ministry and chairman of Parliamentary
Committee for Water Ministry. Following this linkage, Pani Committee will give
representation to the two committees in October to December quarter 2004. The Pani
Committee also visited the campaign of water in the southeast region lead by Chittagong
Citizen’s Forum and funded by ActionAid Bangladesh. This cross visit made the Pani
Committee more confident to pursue the issue to the national level and through this process,
good linkages also made with ActionAid Bangladesh and they showed positive interests to
join in the advocacy campaign for saline free drinking water.

The Pani Committee also organized three rally in three Upazilla (Shayamnagar, Debhata
and Assasuni) and submitted memorandum to the Prime Minister through UNO. UNO of
these three Upazilla received the memorandum and subsequently forwarded to the Prime
Minister through DC office. One rally was held in Shayamnagar during observation of
International Water Day 2004. In that rally, more than 1000 people attended and following a
public meeting in the Sahyamnagar Upazilla Complex, memorandum was submitted and the
UNO give him speech to the public meeting that he will forward this letter to Prime Minister.
He also become wondered that for water crisis such a big rally is organized and he felt that
this is a burning issue for Shayamangar.

Conclusion:
This process documentation is interim in its nature. Majority of the activities are yet to be
accomplished. This process documentation will be finalized after March 2005 (tentatively
May 2005). This document is a mere process of progress of the advocacy campaign not the
assessment of effectiveness of the campaign. In the final documentation, an assessment of
the efficiency of activities and strategies will be included.

References:

Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change (RVCC) Project. 2003 (a). Report of a

Community Level Vulnerability Assessment Conducted in Southwest Bangladesh.

Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change (RVCC) Project. 2003 (b). People’s Knowledge,
Attitudes and Behavior Regarding Climate Change: Result from a Baseline Study in
Southwest Bangladesh.

Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change (RVCC) Project. 2004. Profile of the District
Climate Change Vulnerabilities (Salinity, Waterlogging and Flood) in Southwest Bangladesh.
(not published)

Ahmed, Ahsan Uddin. 2004 (a). Review of Current Policy Regime in Relation to Climate
Change Adaptation.

Ahmed, Ahsan Uddin. 2004 (b). Addressing Issues of Salinity in Potable Water in National
Policies: Whither Adaptation to Climate Change.

Uttaran. 2002. In Search of Saline Free Drinking Water: PRA Findings.

Annex-1:

CAMPAIGN FOR SALINE FREE DRINKING WATER

Objectives:
After reviewing: the result of the shallow aquifer study commissioned by Uttaran; findings of
6 workshops held at Upazilla level; 6 Focus Group Discussions; 4 Force Field Analyses;
and. a preliminary review of the National Water Policy, National Policy for Safe Water Supply
& Sanitation and the Draft National Water Management Plan (NWMP), the campaign
partners set the following objectives for the advocacy campaign:

1. To incorporate drinking water issues in the context of increasing salinity in the

southwest region into the National Water Policy and National Policy for Safe Water
Supply & Sanitation.

2. To ensure that the issue of saline drinking water is incorporated into the final
NWMP.

The above objectives, as well as the campaign design, were finalized by the campaign
partners during a two-day workshop held12-13 November 2003.

Audience:
During the advocacy campaign design workshop, the following target audiences for
advocacy were identified:

• Prime Minister
• LGRD Ministry
• DPHE
• Water Resource Ministry
• WARPO-DG
• Local Administration- Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner, Upazilla Nirbahi Officer
• Member of Parliament
• International Donors
- UNDP
- WORLD BANK
- ADB
- DANIDA
- NORAD
- AUSAID
- DFID
- CIDA
• Media (TV, Radio and Press)
• Local Elected Bodies (LEBs)
• Local DPHE Office
• Rich Individuals
• Suffering People
International Allies:
Campaign members identified international allies and possible mode of involvement and
communications with them.

Name of Brief Description of the Organization Possible Mode of Involvement and

Organization Communication
The Communication Initiative

The Communication Initiative (CI) is a partnership of Advocacy Campaign’s secretariat

http://www.comminit.com/

development organisations seeking to support (Uttaran) will send CI the Advocacy

advances in the effectiveness and scale of
communication interventions for positive international
development. The CI strategy includes: provision of
real-time information on communication and
development experiences and thinking; facilitating
horizontal linkages between people engaged in
communication action; peer commentary on
programmes and strategies; and, taking
opportunities to promote strategic thinking on
communication and development issues and
problems. Global drinking water is one of the prime
development issues that CI deals with.
http://216.198.199.82/english/mai http://www.freshwateraction.
Campaign of RVCC and explore the
possibility of alliance. Initially the contact
will be sharing information and
experiences by email or letter.
The Advocacy Campaign is expecting
that the salinity-laden drinking water
issue in southwest region of Bangladesh
will get international attention through
The Communication Initiative.

The Freshwater Action Network (FAN) is a global The Pani Committee will benefit highly
Freshwater Action Network

network of environmental and developmental non-
governmental and community based organisations
working to strengthen civil society's participation in
international water policy formulation. FAN's
advocacy efforts are geared towards helping
net/
from experience sharing with FAN. FAN
can also influence the international and
national water policy makers.
Uttaran will communicate with FAN on

members of the network understand international
water policies and to co-operate together across the
water sectors for more effective and influential
participation in freshwater policymaking and
implementation.
behalf of the Pani Committee and will
explore possible linkages or alliances
with FAN. Uttaran and RVCC project will
communicate with FAN and will send
their publications to them.

The Gender and Water Alliance is a network of 133 RVCC’s advocacy issue was selected
GWA (Gender Water Alliance)

organisations and individuals from around the world
with an independent steering committee. It is an
Associated Programme of the Global Water
Partnership (GWP) funded by the governments of
the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Because
n.asp
based on the practical needs of women.
RVCC’s technical advisors and advisory
committee members have good
connections with GWA.

of the pooled experience and skills contained in this
network, the GWA offers a mix of information and
knowledge sharing activities such as electronic
conferencing, a web site, advocacy leaflets and
video, annual reports, capacity building and pilot
programmes. In Bangladesh, Bangladesh Water
Partnership is the lead organization.
Contact will be made via email. RVCC
documents, booklet on water issue and
other publications will be sent to GWA.
GWA can help the campaign to influence
the national policy makers.

IRC is an independent, non-profit organization linked The Dept. of Public Health and
IRC International Water and Sanitation

with the Netherlands Government, the United
Nations Development Programme, the United
Nations Children's Fund, the World Health
Organization, the World Bank and the Water Supply
and Sanitation Collaborative Council. IRC facilitates
the sharing, promotion and use of knowledge so that
Centre
Engineering (DPHE) and NGO Forum
are closely linked with IRC. IRC has
regular publications and receives others’
publications. If the campaign can
establish a relationship with IRC, IRC
can help influence government policies.

governments, professionals and organizations can

better support poor men, women and children in
developing countries to obtain water and sanitation
services they will use and maintain (new mission
statement 2002). Using its web site, documentation
and publications, IRC advocates change and aims to
improve the information and knowledge base of the
sector.
 Name of Brief Description of the Organization Possible Mode of Involvement and
Organization Communication
The United Nations Department of Economic and Uttaran, on behalf of the Pani
UNDESA (United Nations Department of Economic and Social

Social Affairs was created as a result of the Committee, will contact UNDESA
consolidation of the Department for Policy through email, information sharing, letter
Coordination and Sustainable Development, the writing and sending paper cuttings.
Department for Economic and Social Information and
Policy Analysis and the Department for Development
Support and Management Services. The main
objective of the Department's programme is to
promote broad-based and sustainable development
through a multidimensional and integrated approach
to economic, social, environmental, population and
Affairs)

gender related aspects of development. The

Department’s functions represent a crucial interface
between global policies and national action, and
between research and operational activities, thereby
facilitating the translation of international agreements
to strategies at the country level, and feeding back
lessons learned and experiences gained from the
country level into the international policy
development process. In implementing the
programme, the Department also aims at
strengthening linkages between the United Nations
and civil society and at developing innovative means
of cooperation and modes of partnership in areas of
common interest.
http://www.wateraid.org

WaterAid is a charity dedicated to helping people
escape the stranglehold of poverty and disease
caused by living without safe water and sanitation.
WaterAid works in partnership with local
WaterAid
WaterAid could be one of the good allies
in Bangladesh for the Advocacy
Campaign. Regular interaction with
WaterAid by RVCC Project, Pani

organisations in 15 countries in Africa and Asia to Committee and Uttaran will be beneficial
.uk/

help poor communities establish sustainable water for the campaign.

supplies and latrines, close to home. WaterAid also
works to influence governments’ water and sanitation
policies to serve the interests of vulnerable people.

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative This is coordinated in Bangladesh by

WSSCC (Water Supply and Sanitation

Council is a leading international organisation that DPHE. The Advocacy Campaign plans
enhances collaboration in the water supply and to contact regularly DPHE and WSSCC
http://www.wsscc.org/

sanitation sector to accelerate the achievement of body in Bangladesh.

Collaborative Council)

sustainable water, sanitation and waste

management services to all people, with special
attention to the unserved poor, by enhancing
collaboration among developing countries and
external support agencies and through concerted
action programmes.
Actor wise Key Messages:
In the November 2003 workshop, an important task was to define the key messages of the
advocacy campaign. The messages needed to be clear to all campaign partners. Draft
messages were developed in the workshop for review. The draft messages are as follows3:

Actor
Key Message(s)
Prime Minister • The problem of saline drinking water • 12 million people in the coastal areas
is overlooked in relevant national
policies (National Water Policy and
National Water and Sanitation
Policy). This issue needs to be
incorporated into the policies.
• Salinity intrusion and related drinking
water problem is not addressed in
the National Water Management
Plan. It is urgent that the potable
water crisis in this region be
addressed properly in the NWMP.
LGRD Ministry • This problem will become more
severe in the future due to climate
DPHE The problem of saline drinking water
is overlooked in the National Water
and Sanitation Policy. This issue
needs to be incorporated into the
policy.
Message
Additional/Supplementary Messages
are suffering severely from lack of safe
potable water due to salinity coupled
with arsenic contamination. It is very
important to give proper attention to the
practical needs of poor and vulnerable
people.
• Poor people (particularly women and
children) are severely suffering from
saline drinking water
• This problem will become more severe
in the future due to climate change.
• Interministerial coordination is
necessary for saline free drinking water
supply
• 12 million people in the coastal areas
are suffering severely from lack of
potable water due to salinity coupled
with arsenic contamination.
• Poor people (particularly women and
children) are severely suffering from
saline drinking water

Water Resource • The problem of saline drinking water • Climate Change and its effects will
Ministry is overlooked in the National Water increase saline intrusion further
Policy; this issue needs to be upstream, which needs to be
incorporated into the policy. considered for the management of
water resources.
WARPO-DG Potable water issue in the National Water Management Plan is only addressed for
Khulna City but the worst sufferers are the rural poor people adjacent to the sea
coast. Rural people’s problems due to increasing salinity needs to be incorporated
into the NWMP.
Deputy • The practical problems of people o Please reserve the Zilla
Commissioner, need to be forwarded to the Parishad owned sweet water sources
Commissioner, ministries for the proper attention of only for drinking water.
Upazilla Nirbahi key policy decision-makers.
Officer
Member of The problem of your own constituency needs to be raised properly in the
Parliament Parliament. As a MP, you need to influence the Parliament to incorporate salinity
issue in relevant national policies and action plans (ex. National Water
Management Plan)
International Donors • Climate Change and its effects on • Funding for deep-water harvesting need
- UNDP water resources, particularly potable to reconsidered as very few sweet water
- WORLD BANK water crisis in coastal zone of aquifers exist in the coastal zone.
- ADB Bangladesh, is inadequately • More studies need to be conducted on
- DANIDA addressed in development this issue to determine better options for
- NORAD
3
The Project Advisory Committee reviewed these messages in early January 2004. It was strongly
recommended that only 1 message be delivered per actor.
 Actor Message
Key Message(s) Additional/Supplementary Messages
- AUSAID goals/programs/projects; this issue the people of this area.
- DFID needs to be considered during future • Direct service fund for installing
- CIDA development strategy formulation or rainwater-harvesting plant or pond sand
programming. filter needs to be increased in this
region.
Media (TV, Radio • Broadcast or project the issue to the larger audience in a sensitive way so that
and Press) different people become positive and proactive regarding this issue.

Local Elected • Raise the salinity-caused potable • Make the Union WATSAN committee
Bodies (LEBs) water issue to the Member of stronger and pro-active.
Parliament. • Take initiative to protect the limited
sweet water sources from human
interventions (ex. shrimp cultivation)
Local DPHE Office • Distribute the water facilities to the • Install a water plant in a suitable
poorer and most affected people. location, which is accessible to the
largest number of users; an area could
be identified via PRA with the intended
users.
Rich Individuals • Please raise or donate fund to ensure community fresh water supply for the rural
people.
Suffering People • Raise your voice to the LEBs, MPs, • This is not a temporary problem: due to
Local Administrators and Local climate change, this problem will be
Service Providers. aggravated.

Advocacy Tools and Media:

The following tools were finalized for the advocacy campaign up to March 2005. Based on
experience gained during this time, the Pani Committee will refine the tools as necessary to
be used in the future.
 Grass-roots Mobilization (awareness raising through cultural activities, posters,
stickers, booklet, group sessions, public meetings and processions, rallies, school
sessions and wall writings)
 Persuasion and Lobbying (representation to Ministers and government high officials,
memorandum submission, public attention advertisement in newspaper, writing
articles in newspaper and popular journals, letter campaigning, workshop, seminar
and round table discussions)
 Media Campaign (press-conference, field visit of journalists and reporting on visit,
talk show on TV, talk show on Radio)
Implementation Plan of the Advocacy Campaign:

The implementation plan of the advocacy Campaign is developed by the participants and the
plan until March 2005 are as follows.

Quarter
Major Activity
J-M 04 A-J 04 J-S 04 O-D 04 J-M 05
Development, field test and printing of Campaign Materials
(Awareness)
-Booklet on salinity caused drinking water issue
-Flip Chart on saline drinking water issue
-Posters on Drinking Water Problem
-Stickers on Drinking Water Problem
-Drama on Saline Drinking Water
-Solo Baul Song on Salinity and Drinking Water
Implementation of Campaign Materials
Policy Review
Wall Writing on Campaign Messages
Performance of folk song and drama
Orientation to school and college students (15)
Formation of Upazilla Pani Committee
Quarterly meeting of Upazilla Pani Committee
Bi-monthly meeting of central Pani Committee
Formation of Students’ Environment Forum
Quarterly Meeting of Students’ Forum
District Level Workshop/Seminar
Round Table Discussion
Thana Level Mass Gathering and Memo submission
District level mass gathering and memo submission
Letter Campaigning
Mass Appeal to Prime Minister
Coordination Meeting with Awareness Campaign Group
Representation to Different Policy Actors