In Bangladesh, men run 5K with pitchers to honor water collectors: 'I finally understood how much hardship the women here face'

Around 100 people — "many of them men carrying pitchers," according to the Dhaka Tribune —  gathered on November 25 in Shyamnagar, Satkhira, in Bangladesh for a symbolic 5-kilometer run in recognition of those who walk long distances each day to collect water for household use. It's an essential task often managed by girls and women, and globally it's increasing in necessity as worsening droughts, rising seas, and contamination weaken water security. 

Traveling so far can pose safety risks and compromise school attendance. “Run for Her Resilience 2025,” organized in part by the youth-led environmental nonprofit Brighters and by the U.N. Development Programme, was an effort aimed at drawing attention to these gendered impacts. And it seemed to hit home.

Participant Ashikur Rahman told the press, “Today I finally understood how much hardship the women here face every day.”

But for many, the consequences of clean, fresh water scarcity can go beyond the time- and labor-intensive collection process. 

In October, a study published in the journal BMC Women's Health "[identified] a strong association between salinity exposure and reproductive health issues" in coastal Bangladesh. Reportedly, consuming overly salty water, washing menstrual pads in overly salty water, and working for long periods in seawater-invaded shrimp farms all can impact reproductive health. 

As rising seas encroach, the co-authors of the recent BMC study "[emphasized] the need for mobile health clinics specializing in reproductive health care, telemedicine services, subsidized household water filtration systems, and expanded rainwater harvesting projects." In a viewpoint published in The Daily Star on November 22, Nazmun Naher of the Bangladesh Institute of Governance and Management identified local women-led water committees as another strategy. 

It's a strategy that may become useful far beyond the Bay of Bengal. By 2050, over 800 million people in 570 cities could face direct threats from rising seas, according to C40 Cities. In addition to disaster preparedness, C40 advocates for a just transition to cleaner, more affordable energy sources to help mitigate the heat-trapping pollution that's driving seas higher worldwide.