Oporajeo has been an integral part in solving issues in social and economic life in hilly areas of Bangladesh as a part of their corporate social responsibilities. The main GFS (gravity flow system that manages water supply) of Thanchi Town went dysfunctional. It was not repaired as it remained dysfunctional for 13 days. This caused serious trouble for at least 2,500 people directly dependent on the system for drinking water. The source of the GFS – the only source of potable water for the locals – is located around one and a half kilometers from the town, in an almost inaccessible area. It’s managed by Upazila Public Health Engineering Department and there’s a committee to oversee its operations.
The Upazila administration took an initiative to repair the GFS and allocated Tk 60,000 for the task. They estimated that it may take 15 days to complete the repair work. But Oporajeo proposed the Upazila administration to get the job done using volunteers and before the deadline.
After getting approval from the administration, Oporajeo formed a team of 10 members including eight workers from the local communities. We started the repair work at 5:30am on July 19 and completed it within 12 hours! Actually, it took only 8 hours to repair the 1,880 feet pipeline of the GFS while transportation took 3 hours and the team had to rest for an hour.
During that time, the team repaired and cleaned 600 feet 4-inch pipe, 800 feet 2-inch pipe and 480 feet 1.5-inch pipe. Our team also removed blockage from the main input line of the GFS, caused due to a landslide.
The workers and volunteers had no prior experience related to the job but they cooperated with the technical experts from Oporajeo cordially. And it cost us only Tk 7,860 to resume water supply through the GFS. We take great pride in solving the issue conveniently in such a small margin of time. It gained us the confidence to take up more helpful projects for the people in need.
