In Western civilisation it is rather common to open the tap and clean and safe drinking water is available. This is however not the case for very many people all around the globe. In Bangladesh for example is the use of handpumps still common nowadays. These handpumps pump up groundwater which contains high amounts of arsenic in some areas. Arsenic has many negative health effects on the long term such as skin diseases, infertility and tumours in the intestines.
Project Bangla aims to create a system to provide safe drinking water on a small-scale in Bangladesh. The team consists of five master students from the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences with their own expertises. The project is based on three main topics; finding a safe groundwater source, further cleaning and transport of the water to households and involving local inhabitants to the project. This last point is very essential for making the project a success. The aim is that the locals will be able to check the water quality and maintain the system themselves. When locals get involved they start to feel responsible which makes that the system keeps working after we leave again. In this way we try to find and implement a sustainable solution for the drinking water issue in Bangladesh.
