Dhaka - Pre Intervention

Today the group visited three separate slums in Dhaka which were pre-intervention (WaterAid have done no work in the area).
The visit enabled us to meet and interview a slum dweller to ask them about the conditions they live in, where they collect water, go to the toilet and wash.
Sarah and myself interviewed a 35 year old lady named Rashida who was married with four children and has lived in this slum for ten years.  Her husband shares one room with her and they have another room for the two children who have not left home.
The water supply to the household is provided by the landowner, but this is only for bathing and washing clothes and is usually only available from 8am to 2pm.  They collect their drinking water from the house of a local MP under some friendly agreement.
The community have shared use of hanging latrines, which is in basic terms a corrugated iron and bamboo shed with a hole in the floor on stilts over a pond.  The pond is also used for all the garbage from the slum as they have nowhere else provided for it.  Access  to the latrines is across a pile of rotting food waste and plastic packaging.  The area around the latrines is dangerous to walk on and in the rainy seasons the pond level can raise high enough that the waste water and garbage washes up into the lower houses forcing the residents to move higher up the slums.
Rashida is actually happy because she knows no different, but does appreciate that with better sanitation facilities their lives will be improved.  At the moment their biggest problem is the garbage disposal, which would make access to their latrine facilities safer and easier.  They would also benefit from a water supply which runs 24 hours a day, or at least had a storage tank at the top of the slum which they could draw from any time it's convenient.
This is the kind of work that WaterAid does for communities, working with local Non Goverment Organisations to decide who is most in need of the assistance.

We've moved on to Khulna today, on a hair raising 9 hour journey including a fantastic ferry crossing and a chance to really soak up the immense diversity of Bangladeshi culture at the roadside.  It's fascinating to just watch as people go about their daily business.  We were also centre of attention as we walked around the slums, but the people were so friendly and curious that it never felt threatening to have so many people surrounding you.

I'll try and add some photos soon.
Tomorrow we are walking to the slum projects in Khulna as there is a national strike which makes road travel impossible, or badly recommended at least.