Female RMG workers suffer due to insufficient water supply
AKM Enamul Hoque, the deputy minister also urged everyone to stop wasting water
Excessive use of ground water in the industrial areas of Dhaka city resulted in the gradual decrease of ground water levels, causing lots of miseries for the readymade garment workers, especially the female workers.
Due to insufficient water supply by WASA, many garments factories use underground water to meet their needs. As a result, the ground water levels is gradually decreasing, causing the residents in the adjacent areas to suffer from scarcity of water.
The experts on Monday came up with the remarks at a workshop under the banner: ‘Gender, water and empowerment among readymade garment workers of Bangladesh', jointly organised by Coventry University, UK; Bangladesh Agriculture University (BAU); Dhaka University (DU), and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
Dr. Deepa Joshi of Coventry University said, the women in Bangladesh are doing well in all sectors; however, the condition of female garment workers is miserable.
Female workers suffer more than male workers, as they perform various household chores along with their jobs. Many female garment workers, after returning from factories late at night, have to get up before dawn to collect and store water, since water supply is not available all day long.
While referring to the continuously increasing participation of female workers in almost all the sectors in Bangladesh, AKM Enamul Hoque, deputy minister at the ‘ministry of water resources’, acknowledged the misery of the female garment workers, caused by the scarcity of water, as he said, "This misery of the female garment workers is a fact. However, we are working on the issue, and hopefully there will be no scarcity of water by 2030,” he added.
The minister also urged everyone to stop wasting water.
Dr. Sadika Hoque of BAU, as the chief guest, presented a research paper on the topic.
Dr. A I Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, Dean of the faculty of social sciences at DU, chaired the workshop, while Dr. MA Sattar Mandal, Professor Emeritus of BAU; Engr Md Mahfuzur Rahma, DG of Bangladesh water development board; and other took part in the workshop.