A recent Oxfam Bangladesh study indicates that more than three-quarters of apparel workers have no running water inside their residences.
"Unofficial and informal service providers fill this gap. They charge high costs for low-quality services. The inadequate access to safe drinking is the main contributor to the poor health of residents," it added.
So, "Shujola" targets to provide the apparel workers in their – often unregulated – residential communities with access to affordable sources of safe water for drinking and bathing.
The project aims to do so by facilitating private parties – such as individual entrepreneurs – to work with water technology companies to set up water kiosks.
"Shujola – Promoting Water Entrepreneurs and Digital Financing Mechanism in Bangladesh" is a 15-month pilot project that gives apparel workers and their communities access to safe water at low cost from "water kiosks" run by entrepreneurs.
A water kiosk can be a water dispensary, a water ATM (Automatic Teller Machine), a bottling plant, or a combination of several of these, says Swisscontact Bangladesh.
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