In Bandarban's Chimbuk Hill, a community quietly struggles through a water crisis

From midnight to dawn, residents of Mro settlements take turns traversing treacherous paths to collect water from dried-up streams

U She Thowai MarmaBandarban Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 21 March 2023, 09:44 PM
Updated : 21 March 2023, 09:44 PM

Some 2,000 feet above sea level, natives of Bandarban's Chimbuk Hill are no strangers to water shortages during the dry season. But between March and May, a silent cry for water emanates from the hundred or so settlements inhabited by the Mro community.

During this period, women take turns traversing treacherous mountain trails from midnight to dawn to collect water for their families. In the narrow mountain streams, driblets of water trickle through the stones.

Water sources are few and far between and unless the situation changes, residents fear that they will be forced to leave their homes.

The amount of rainfall in the hills has almost halved from previous years due to climate change, say environmentalists. Forests are also being destroyed wantonly.

Consequently, natural reservoirs and sources of mountain water are drying up by the day, and the health implications for the tribal community are alarming.

About 100 Mro settlements are scattered along the Ruma-Thanchi road, south of Bandarban town. Around 12,000-13,000 people live in these villages, most of which are located on hilltops. Some are situated at the foot of the hills.

“Rain is the main source of water in the hills. There used to be a lot of rainfall in the mountains. Annual rainfall ranged from 2,500 mm to 3,000 mm," said Md Mahbubul Islam, principal scientific officer of the Bandarban Soil Research Development Institute.

But the region only experienced 1,500 mm of rainfall during the last monsoon, according to him. The amount of water in the mountain springs and streams is much lower now.

MIDNIGHT SCRAMBLE FOR WATER

During a recent visit to Mrolong Para in Chimbuk Hill, bdnews24.com found a gravity flow system (GFS) was installed by the Chattogram Hill Tracts Development Board to draw water from a stream and provide it to 27 families through a pipe network.

The water is stored in a tank and purified later. But the tap is almost running dry. A pitcher can't be filled even after waiting for several hours.

Chamle Mro was trying to gather water in some empty bottles next to the GFS tank. He said that the stream from which the water is extracted has dried up. As water is in short supply, many are forced to collect the bare minimum in bottles just to survive.

“A bit further down, there are two springs which are the only sources of water for 27 families during the dry season. However, the state of the two streams is dire. The water there is scarce,” he said.

One of the streams is a 20-minute walk away from the neighbourhood. It takes about half an hour to come back with water as one has to walk uphill. On the other hand, even though there is water in the other spring, it takes an hour and a half to get there.

“The women of the neighbourhood start collecting water every day after midnight. Three or four people go to fetch water at a time. After they return, another group of three or four more heads out. In this way, we take turns collecting water until 6 am."

“If they go together, they won't get enough water. After collecting one or two mugs, one has to wait an hour for the water to accumulate. Otherwise, crabs make holes in the wet soil. Sometimes, one has to dig all the way down the crab burrows to fetch water.”

It was 10 am when three women were walking up a steep hill on their way back home from the nearest stream, with full bottles of water sitting in thurungs, or overhead baskets.

If a group of five or six people head to the stream together, they would have to wait for up to three hours to collect water, according to them. As a result, two or three people go there every now and again. As they were a bit late to finish their household chores in the morning, they let another group go and fetch water instead.

The stream is damp and tiny amounts of water drip out of the rocks lining its surface. It takes a bit of time for the water to accumulate again.

There, the water is first collected in mugs before it is filtered and poured into pitchers. After taking two mugs of water in a row, one has to wait a while for the next turn. Women fill up one or two-litre bottles and bring them back in their overhead baskets.

"We have to come here two or three times a day to get water. It is mainly used for cooking," said Rum Pao Mro, who came to collect water from the stream.

"We won't be able to get as much water from the stream in a month's time. Then our suffering will increase. We'll have to travel further to fetch water.”

In the meantime, a gardener named Rang Kaisa Mro was cleaning his hands and face with water from a small hole near the stream.

"This is what amounts to a bath for us -- just to be able to wash our hands in any way. But you have to go a little further to wash clothes," he says.

"There is some water in the other stream. But the water is decreasing there with each passing day. It will be difficult to go on like this for another two months.”

Kramadi Para is located around 1 km down the hill in Chimbuk's 11-Mile area. It is home to 44 Mro families. Menle Mro, the founder of the tribe's Krama religion and the inventor of the Mro alphabet, was born here. The office of the Mro Language Committee is also situated in the village.

Every year in December, the annual convention of Krama religion is held in this village. Even a settlement with such rich history and cultural heritage as this is plagued by a severe water shortage, according to Paco Mro, a resident and a development worker.

Members of this community also set out to gather water from midnight to 6 am, he said.

A marginal amount of water seeps out of the pores and cracks of rocks. It takes a while for it to accumulate. In order to shore up the water supply, the women themselves have chosen to take turns collecting water from 12 midnight.

“There is another stream about 30 minutes away from the settlement, which has some water. But you have to walk up a very steep hill on the way back. There is no scope to bring more water. As the intensity of heat increases, the amount of water decreases," he said.

“Many men and women carry their clothes in baskets while going to the jhum fields. They take a bath and wash their clothes on the way back. There is no other way."

‘TK 800 FOR 1,000 LITRE OF WATER’

Noted researcher on Mro culture and anthropology, Yangan Mro, himself a resident of the Baitta Para settlement in the Chimbuk Hill region, said water prices have shot up significantly due to severe scarcity.

“There are at least 100 settlements in the area, and with the exception of one or two, people have been suffering due to the water shortage. As a result, the prices of water have gone up significantly. We used to buy 1,000 litres of water at Tk 600. Now, the price has risen to Tk 800 per 1,000 litres,” he said.

On Sunday, people living in some of these neighbourhoods organised a discussion to address the water shortage issue.

At the discussion, Chingtui Mro, headman of the Ramri Para neighbourhood, highlighted the plight of some students' plight at a dormitory in his area to make his case.

“There used to be a downhill stream, close to my neighbourhood, which the students at a dormitory nearby used for baths. Lately, the water in that stream has dried up,” he said.

Chingtui also blamed the increasing population on the area and the changing nature of habitation, which is affecting the region's biodiversity, under Rowangchhari Upazila of Bandarban.

“People are razing naturally-grown bamboo gardens and trees near the downhill streams to make space for their gardens, which is affecting the water flow.”

He also proposed forming a vigilant committee to stop the trend of taking down bamboo gardens and trees.

Toyo Mro, a resident of another settlement called Basanta Para, said the proposed committee needs to ensure no one can grow their garden at least half a kilometre near a downhill stream.

Mongmongsing Marma, executive director of a charity called Humanitarian Foundation, who was also present at the discussion, raised another important issue of pesticides.

“People growing their garden use pesticides, and those chemicals destroy the biodiversity of the downhill stream by killing the snails, clams and crabs in the water. The usage of pesticides is also affecting the water flow,” he said.

CASES OF DIARRHOEA, DYSENTERY RISING

The scarcity of drinking water is forcing people living in the hilly neighbourhoods of Chimbuk hill to drink impure quality water.

As a result, the cases of water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and dysentery have been rising at an alarming rate, especially among children.

Dr Nihar Ranjan Nandy, the civil surgeon of the district, said his office is well aware of the situation and doing its best to ensure the people living in the region can purify water before drinking.

“We have been supplying water purifying tablets to the residents in the hilly neighbourhood. But there are some unreachable remote neighbourhoods at the deep end of the hill.

“We don’t even get information from there if someone died from diarrhoea,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of addressing the water scarcity of the area before turning the administration’s attention to the water-borne disease issue.

“First, the administration needs to address the scarcity issue. If water is available, we can address the issue of ensuring the residents in those remote regions can get purified water to drink.”

Md Mahbubul Islam, principal scientific officer of Bandarban Soil Research Development Institute, posited that if the residents in the area adopt an advanced method of cultivation and focus on forestation instead of cleaning out bamboo gardens and trees, the biodiversity of the area will revert to its previous state.

Khorshed Alam, an assistant engineer of the district’s Department of Public Health Engineering, said his office is looking for ways to resolve the water shortage.

“At the moment, we are supplying water to the neighbourhoods suffering from a serious shortage by laying out pipes from the nearest water source to the water tank set up in the neighbourhoods.

“The soil in this area is hard, so we can’t drill to set up deep tubewells. We are on the drawing board to find a sustainable solution to address the water scarcity,” he said.

[Writing in English by Turaj Ahmad and Adil Mahmood]