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water

Rethinking water security in a water-insecure world

The words came from a teenage girl standing amid the devastation of the Odisha Super Cyclone in Eastern India in 1999. At the time, I was a member of the Indian Administrative Service, coordinating relief efforts 48 hours after the storm. Her question cut through the chaos and would shape my life’s work. Relief was necessary, but the real solution lies in building strong, adaptive water systems.

The Growing Water Crisis

The devastation in Odisha wasn’t just about wind speeds and storm surges—it was about what followed.
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Freshwater crisis intensifies

Waking up before dawn every day, Asma Khatun walks to a water plant five kilometres away to collect fresh drinking water for her 11-member family. It will be midday or even later before she returns home to her village in southwest Bangladesh’s Satkhira district, where all freshwater sources were destroyed after the devastating Cyclone Aila in 2009. Without the 10-kilometre trek through an uneven path to the plant near Ramjannagor Dighi where the pond water is treated, there will be no water for cooking and drinking. Though the walk itself takes two hours, the 25-year-old says she has to queue up for much of the day to get her turn at the tap.
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