City Group, WaterAid sign MoU for tea pickers

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between WaterAid Bangladesh and City Group recently where WaterAid will provide technical support to access safe and adequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene services for the tea pickers.

The activities will focus to plan and design of the WASH infrastructures and implement innovative approaches to reach tea-picker communities and promote inclusive and sustainable WASH in line with SDG 6.

Under this MoU, WaterAid will support by forming a WASH committee in the tea garden community, providing training to the tea-pickers representatives, and support with WASH guidelines and manuals to the committee members.

The signing event was inaugurated by Mr Fazlur Rahman, chairman and managing director of City Group. Shazad Sarwar, general manager – Tea Operation of City Group and Hasin Jahan, country director, WaterAid signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The signing took place at City Group’s Gulshan 2 office Dhaka in the presence Paban Chowdhury, chief advisor of City Group, Hossain Ishrath Adib, director programmes, WaterAid, Imamur Rahman, programme manager, M Shafiqul Islam, policy adviser, and Ranjan Ghose, advocacy specialist, were present in the event.

During the programme, Hasin Jahan, country director, WaterAid said, "Private sector has a big role to play towards achieving SDGs. They often play a vital and positive impact on the development activities through uplifting the economic condition of the people. "

"The MoU agreement with City Group is an indication that businesses can contribute to support access to water and sanitation for the marginalized communities such as tea-picker communities towards living a healthy life and contribute to SDG 6," Jahan added.

Fazlur Rahman, chairman and managing director of City Group said, "If we ensure to improve the living standards and the wellbeing of the workers, they become efficient and their work productivity increase. The joint collaboration between City Group and WaterAid aims to increase sustainable access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene for tea pickers to fulfill their rights and needs, which they deserve."