Living in coastal Bangladesh is a good working definition of being water insecure. Cyclones and storm surges overwhelm the deltaic floodplains with high salinity in groundwater limiting safe drinking water. Decades of government, donor and household investments have created a portfolio of drinking water technologies – tube wells, pond sand filters, piped schemes, and rainwater harvesting – with varied water quality, costs and maintenance needs. Differences in local hydrogeology, infrastructure gaps, and seasonal variability create inequalities in water availability and cost burdens. Informal vendors source water from distant tube wells and reverse osmosis plants, selling it to places with no other alternatives. The Water Diaries chart households’ daily water source choices, facing uncertain health risks and high-cost burdens. Drawing on this research evidence, a new model for professional service delivery has been piloted in schools and healthcare facilities. Pilot results showed that the SafePani model can achieve water safety and reliability at less than USD 1 per person per year. The government has invested in scaling up the SafePani model through results-based funding, in recognition of the need for institutional and financial reforms for sustainable andsafe rural drinking water services.

Access to affordable water and sanitation services is crucial for the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. Where these services are available but not affordable, people will not be able to use sufficient amounts of water and adequately maintain latrines, or will turn to cheaper, unsafe sources or practices. Another consequence is that people, in order to support the costs of water and sanitation, might compromise the realization of other human rights such as food, housing, health or education. However, the issue of affordability does not always receive the attention it deserves. As people will go to great lengths to pay for water to ensure their survival and health, there is often an assumption that people will obtain the water they need even without the state support.