A solar-powered water solution restores dignity and ease to an elderly widow and her village in the remote hills of Rangamati.
“Now I have water in my yard. I am very happy,” says Nayon Tara Chakma, an 84-year-old widow from Keronchhari village in Rangamati. Her smile is quiet but full. Her hands, weathered by time, now cup clean water from a solar-powered tap just steps from her home. For her, this simple act is more than comfort, it’s freedom!
Rangamati, located in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeastern Bangladesh, is known for its scenic beauty and indigenous communities, but also for its remote, hard-to-reach terrain that makes access to basic services a challenge.
Until recently, Nayon Tara’s daily life was marked by hardship. Climate change had turned her once-thriving village into a place of scarcity. Streams that once gurgled through the hills dried up. Drinking water became a daily struggle. Widowed and frail, she depended on her youngest son, a day labourer, for support. Still, every day during harsh weather, she braved nearly two kilometres of hilly terrain to fetch water. Bathing was rare, and thirst was constant. The small clay house she lived in, built by her late husband’s hands, stood firm, but her spirit often wavered under the burden of survival.