Figures
1.2The water diary charts designed for Kitui county, Kenya, which were translated to the local language Kikamba. One hundred and fifteen households in Kyuso and Tseikuru wards of Mwingi-North subcounty participated in the diary study from August 2018 to July 2019.
2.1Looking into the expansive Buriganga River from our tour boat in March 2018. As the black, polluted waters glistened in the morning sun, the bridge at the far end read, ‘The nation thrives if the rivers survive. We will bring back our Golden Bengal’ (translated from Bangla). (Photo credit: Alice Chautard, 2018).
2.2Map of Greater Dhaka (comprising four districts) showing the Dhaka North (DNCC), Dhaka South (DSCC), Gazipur (GCC), and Narayanganj (NCC) City Corporations, major rivers, and industrial clusters.
2.3River health of Greater Dhaka during 2019–2020 based on a Water Quality Index comprising 15 parameters, namely temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, oxidation-reduction potential, turbidity, colour, alkalinity, iron, ammonia nitrogen, nitrate, phosphate, sulphide, sulphate, and chloride. Drawn by author using data collected by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology under the REACH Programme.
2.4Low-income settlements near the Konabari industrial cluster along the Turag River. Rise in water levels in monsoon dilutes pollutants, though increased proximity and use of river water is likely to increase exposure to toxic chemicals and pathogens. (Photo credit: Sonia Hoque, February and August 2019).
2.5Map of Turag River and Tongi Khal in northern Dhaka showing locations of households surveyed and river use observation study by zones.
2.6(a) Boat dwellers and hanging latrines along Tongi slum (Photo credit: Sonia Hoque, 2017); (b) woman collecting plastic bottles from Tongi Khal (Photo credit: Rebecca Peters, 2017); (c) men washing and bathing in the indigo waters (Photo credit: Alice Chautard, 2018); (d) and a Ferris wheel for children next to an effluent outlet along Buriganga River (Photo credit: Alice Chautard, 2018).
2.7Intensity of river use activities disaggregated by zone and observation site. Reprinted from Hoque et al. (2021) under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
2.8Observations of river use disaggregated by gender and age. Reprinted from Hoque et al. (2021) under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
3.1Sisters-in-law busy with chores on a typical afternoon in Polder 29.
3.2Location and water salinity of tube wells mapped in Polder 29 and Polder 23 of Khulna district.
3.3Women using kolshis and plastic bottles to collect water from a pond sand filter (Photo credit: Lutfor Rahman).
3.4Water from a deep tube well in Polder 29 being transported in 30-litre containers via a trawler to be sold to villages 6–8 km further south (Photo credit: Lutfor Rahman).
3.5(a) Water supply infrastructure and (b) main sources of drinking water in Polder 29 and Polder 23.
3.6Water sources used by 120 diary households during 2018–2019 in relation to rainfall.
3.7Seasonal variations in chemical and faecal contamination across 97 waterpoints in Polder 29.
3.8Annual water and food expenditures against total expenditures for 120 diary households in Polder 29 in 2018–2019.
4.1Spatial and seasonal variations in rainfall over Kitui county, illustrating the ‘long rainy season’ (March–May) and the ‘short rainy season’ (October–December) separated by a prolonged ‘dry season’ (June–September). Map drawn by Ellen Dyer using rainfall data from 2016 to 2022 available from the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS).
4.2People extracting water from scoopholes in a dry sandy riverbed in rural Kitui. The photo was taken in March 2017 just days before the Kenyan President declared a national drought emergency (Credit: Rob Hope).
4.3Map of Mwingi-North subcounty showing the spatial and seasonal changes in water sources by 115 water diary households during 2018–2019.
4.4Monthly variations in water salinity and faecal contamination risks by type of source in Mwingi-North subcounty. (Designed by author using data from Nowicki et al. 2022. Missing datapoints refer to instances where the sources have dried up, closed operations, or become non-functional.)
4.5Monthly variation in amount of water fetched from different sources and water expenditures for households in four ‘expenditure categories’.
4.6Household annual water and total expenditures grouped by ‘water expenditure categories’. (Each pie chart represents one household, with the colours reflecting the share of total amount of water fetched by source. Water expenditure categories were derived through cluster analysis of household monthly water expenditures. The dashed lines show the median annual water expenditure for each category.)
4.7Boxplot showing monthly variations in water supplied across 32 piped schemes in Mwingi-North during 2018–2021, with red line showing the mean values. The chart highlights the drop in piped scheme usage during the two rainy seasons (Data source: FundiFix).
5.1Charts showing spatial variations in rainfall in the Turkwel River basin (orange boundary) across different months. (Star shows location of Lodwar town, and white dot shows Turkwel Gorge dam). Map drawn by Ellen Dyer using rainfall data from 2016 to 2022 available from the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS).
5.2Typical dome-shaped huts in Lodwar with a metered LOWASCO water tap protruding from the ground (Photo credit: Sonia Hoque, February 2019).
5.3Main sources of drinking water reported by households in Lodwar town in 2017.
5.4Monthly variations in water, food, education, and total expenditures reported by 98 water diary households during 2018–2019. Water expenditures remain relatively stable throughout the year, with food expenditures peaking during Christmas (December 2018) and educational expenditures peaking in beginning of term (September 2018 and January 2019).
5.5Annual water expenditure incurred by 98 water diary households in 2018–2019 in relation to their total household expenditures and the proportion of water fetched from different sources.
5.6Map of Lodwar town showing location of waterpoints (functional at the time of data collection). Data combined from multiple rounds of water supply infrastructure mapping in June 2021, February 2022, and May 2023.
5.7Private water vendor selling water for KES 30 per 20-litre jerrycan (USD 1.5 per m3) in Lokaparparei, 4 km north of Lodwar town (Photo: Waterpoint Survey, July 2021).
5.8Children scooping water from the dry riverbed of Kawalase River in Lodwar (Photo credit: Sonia Hoque, February 2019).
A.1The water diary charts designed for Khulna, Bangladesh, which were translated to Bangla. One hundred and twenty households from the southern part of Polder 29 participated in the diary study from May 2018 to April 2019. Reprinted from Hope and Hoque (2020) under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
A.2Water diary sheets filed by household ID and stacked in REACH Polder 29 office in Khulna.
A.3Completed water diaries submitted by week and by number of households in Khulna, Kitui, and Lodwar.
A.4Timeline of water diaries and complementary methods across the four sites in Bangladesh and Kenya.
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