Bangladesh's water challenges are becoming increasingly diverse, with falling groundwater levels threatening drought-prone regions while salinity and recurring cyclones continue to undermine access to safe water in the coastal belt.
Addressing these challenges will require locally appropriate solutions, better access to climate finance and stronger systems for maintenance and accountability.
Against this backdrop, WaterAid Bangladesh and The Business Standard jointly organised a roundtable titled "Financing Bangladesh's Climate Resilient Water Future: Youth Innovation and Action Towards COP31" on 24 September at the TBS conference room.
Policymakers, community representatives, youth innovators, development practitioners and financial-sector representatives joined the roundtable, which centred on youth-led climate action and innovation ahead of COP31.
The discussion focused on translating grassroots water challenges into scalable solutions, improving access to finance, strengthening institutional coordination and ensuring greater youth participation in climate governance and implementation.
Md Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee, MP
Minister, Ministry of Water Resources
As an MP working directly with communities, I have seen firsthand how groundwater levels are falling year after year. In some areas, including those near the coast, people now have to drill as deep as 800 feet for water.
True sustainability requires restoring our natural ecosystems through canal excavation and rainwater harvesting, approaches pioneered decades ago during president Ziaur Rahman's tenure.
Under our five-year roadmap, we are committed to excavating 20,000 kilometres of canals and planting 25 million trees, while advancing major infrastructure projects such as the Padma Barrage to combat salinity.
Young people and innovators are vital partners in this journey to build a modern, prosperous Bangladesh.
Azman Ahmed Chowdhury
Country Director, WaterAid Bangladesh
Addressing our climate-resilient water future requires closing the gap between policy ambition and realities on the ground.
While the Prime Minister's startup fund and Bangladesh Bank's green financing schemes offer significant potential, we need to make these funds far more accessible and flexible for climate
entrepreneurs.
True sustainability also means moving away from rigid donor approaches and ensuring that our partners respond to actual community needs.
At WaterAid, through our Blue Platform, we are committed to mentoring youth-led innovations and helping turn grassroots solutions into scalable investments ahead of COP31.
Abu Bokkor Sadhin
Community Youth Representative, Naogaon
In our region, groundwater levels are falling steadily, creating serious problems for agriculture, public health and daily life.
Shortages of safe drinking water are affecting people's health, while water scarcity is also pushing some workers away from farming and creating economic hardship.
We need immediate and practical measures to protect our community's water security.
Md Iliyas Hosen
Community Youth Representative, Satkhira
In the coastal belt of Satkhira, including unions such as Gabura, Padmapukur and Pratapanagar, water is abundant but largely undrinkable because of severe salinity, which is worsened by recurring cyclones.
Up to 81% of our arable land is affected, while contaminated water sources are causing serious health problems, including menstrual hygiene complications and rising infertility.
Marginalised groups such as the Munda community cannot afford commercial RO water, and with growing climate threats, our survival depends on urgent and sustainable surface-water solutions.
Ashraf Islam Ashfaq
Chief Operating Officer, AquiVira
We developed clay-based, non-electric gravity water purifiers using specially designed materials to improve purification quality at the field level. However, adoption of the technology is often hindered by a lack of local awareness and maintenance support.
Because water challenges vary greatly from one location to another, local adaptability and the ability to maintain systems at the community level are essential for any sustainable water intervention.
Tanvir Ahamed
Co-founder, HopeDrop
In places like Shyamnagar, Satkhira, people – mostly women and the elderly – walk miles or rely on unaffordable commercial RO systems because local pond water is highly saline and unpalatable.
To address this, our initiative, HopeDrop, uses portable, solar-powered reverse-osmosis systems designed to operate during power outages, floods and cyclones.
However, youth-led hardware innovations cannot scale without continuous multi-year grant support and flexible early-stage financing to bridge the gap in commercial viability.
Adiba Zaman
Student, BUET
Working with WaterAid to revive the Mohakhali pond taught me that environmental design goes far beyond physical landscaping – it requires strong community engagement and local ownership.
Water challenges are deeply rooted across Bangladesh, and our generation of young professionals is ready to develop broader, community-centred solutions if we are given the right opportunities for collaboration.
Zarif Oeishik
Project Delivery Expert & Global Young Leader, WaterAid Bangladesh
To move beyond treating young people merely as campaign mobilisers, we need to integrate them directly into local governance and policy partnerships. By creating structured channels between grassroots communities and formal administrative bodies, young people can serve as important accountability partners and help ensure climate interventions achieve their intended goals.
Climate finance reaches communities when proposals are ready, with local evidence behind them, a clear route into budgets and a plan to keep systems working beyond the first years. Ahead of COP31, young people can own parts of that chain, from generating evidence and developing projects to tracking whether commitments arrive.
Shahreena Mumtaz
Project Officer & Global Young Leader, WaterAid Bangladesh
Bangladesh's water challenges vary widely, from groundwater depletion in drought-prone areas to salinity in coastal communities. These challenges require locally tailored solutions and stronger collaboration among communities, policymakers, development partners and young innovators.
Young people have a vital role in developing and implementing practical solutions, but they need access to flexible financing, mentorship and institutional support to scale their ideas beyond pilot projects.
With NDC 3.0 recognising WASH as a climate issue and calling for meaningful youth participation, the task now is to turn communities' priorities into proposals that planners and climate finance can act on. As we move towards COP31, we must ensure that local experiences and youth-led innovations are reflected in climate policy, financing and implementation.
Sumaiya Binte Selim
Program Coordinator, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD)
With the rollout of the local-level adaptation framework in 2026, our focus must now be on bridging the different water realities of the drought-prone Barind region and salinity-affected coastal
areas.
True resilience requires integrating these localised adaptation frameworks directly into national policy and funding mechanisms ahead of COP31.
Raisa Habib
Research Assistant, ITN-BUET
While numerous policy documents exist, gaps in coordination between institutions and unclear operational responsibilities often undermine local adaptation
efforts.
We need to bridge the longstanding divide between academic research and grassroots realities, with greater focus on long-term maintenance and clearly defined roles for every stakeholder involved.
Molla Karimul Islam
Operational Head, Sustainable Finance Department, City Bank
Bangladesh Bank offers dedicated refinancing schemes, such as the Green Transformation Fund and Technology Development Fund, with concessional interest rates as low as 5% for eligible environmental initiatives.
However, commercial banks still need to assess cash flow and repayment capacity to ensure that projects are financially viable.
Entrepreneurs should explore blended finance models that combine international grants, viability-gap funding and commercial loans to reduce risks and help scale up their green innovations.
Jasmima Sabatina
Research Consultant, CEGIS; Contact Point, Loss and Damage Working Group, YOUNGO
Unlike rapid-onset disasters that immediately draw attention, slow-onset water crises such as soil and groundwater salinity gradually erode ecosystems and displace coastal communities.
To unlock global Loss and Damage funding, we must move beyond emotional advocacy and support our claims with robust, evidence-based climate attribution data on international platforms such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Mosaddek Hossain
Assistant Manager, Project Implementation Team, JAAGO Foundation
Participation at global climate summits such as COP31 must move beyond symbolic representation towards meaningful, evidence-based engagement, where community youth can present verified data and negotiate effectively.
Empowering young people as local data collectors and evidence creators can help bridge resource gaps faced by formal institutions and strengthen accountability.
Hasibul Islam Rafi
Coordinator, KLIMA
To overcome systemic barriers to climate finance, development partners, NGOs and the government must stop treating water problems as cyclical business opportunities and commit to genuine, centralised coordination.
By actively engaging youth-led platforms in high-level implementation committees and rigorous evidence gathering, initiatives such as KLIMA can help turn local dialogues into scalable, investment-ready climate solutions.
From local realities to global action
The discussions highlighted that Bangladesh's water challenges cannot be addressed through a single solution or financing model. Groundwater depletion in the Barind region, salinity in coastal areas, and the need for resilient water systems during cyclones require approaches tailored to local conditions.
Participants also stressed that youth-led innovations need more than technical development. Access to flexible financing, mentoring, institutional partnerships, community ownership and long-term maintenance will determine whether promising ideas can move beyond pilot projects.
The discussion also underscored the importance of evidence. Community-generated data, stronger institutional feedback mechanisms and climate attribution data can help connect local water challenges with national planning and international climate-finance mechanisms.
For young people, the proposed role therefore extends beyond awareness campaigns. They can contribute as innovators, community data collectors, policy partners, accountability actors and intermediaries between grassroots communities and formal institutions.
As Bangladesh prepares for COP31, participants stressed the need to ensure that local water realities and youth-led solutions are reflected in national financing and adaptation priorities. The broader challenge is to turn local experiences into evidence, solutions into scalable investments, and those investments into lasting improvements in water security.