Khulna, 13 November 2026: Nazrul Islam Manju, Administrator of Khulna City Corporation (KCC), has called for Water ATM booths to be rolled out faster across Khulna, saying many residents still have no safe, affordable drinking water close to home. He made the call on 11 November at a meeting in the Khulna WASA (KWASA) conference room attended by KWASA Managing Director Md. Firoz Shah, Satoshi Ishii of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Drinkwell Chief Executive Officer Minhaj Chowdhury.
The Administrator said climate change is pushing families off their land and into Khulna, and that about 2 lakh (200,000) people in the city, many of them living in slums and near the rail stations, still have no piped water. Residents come to him asking for water they can drink. Deep tube wells installed for some communities have not delivered potable water, and several large wards are criss-crossed by lanes only four or five feet wide, too narrow for a pipeline. Those, he said, are the places that need Water ATM booths.
He noted that safe water projects built around a fixed end date often stop when the funding stops. After seeing the Water ATM booth at Khalishpur, run by Drinkwell in partnership with KWASA, he said a model that covers its own running costs is one that can last.
The case was also personal. In Dhanmondi, Dhaka, his son and daughter used to collect water from Drinkwell's Water ATM booths, so seeing a Drinkwell Water ATM card in Khulna was a welcome surprise. He said KCC can provide land for new booths, as Rajshahi City Corporation has done in its partnership with Drinkwell. His closing message was about speed: people need this water now, and the work has to move quickly.
KWASA Managing Director Md. Firoz Shah said Khulna WASA will cooperate fully with the expansion under its three-year Memorandum of Understanding with Drinkwell, which provides for up to 100 Water ATM booths across the city.
Satoshi Ishii, Director of the Strategy and Partnerships Team in ADB's Water and Urban Development Sector Office, took part in the discussion and expressed interest in initiatives that improve access to safe drinking water in Khulna.
Two days earlier, on 9 November, Ishii led an eight-member ADB delegation to Drinkwell's Water ATM booth at Karwan Bazar, Dhaka, which Drinkwell operates in partnership with Dhaka WASA. Hosted by Chowdhury, the delegation then visited Drinkwell's control centre in Dhaka to see how the company manages its field teams and monitors its booths.
“Bangladesh's water crisis is a coordination crisis,” said Minhaj Chowdhury, CEO of Drinkwell. “The Administrator is right that climate change is putting more pressure on Khulna's water every year. When the City Corporation brings land, Khulna WASA brings water and a framework to grow, and development partners are part of the conversation, safe water can move from projects with an end date to services that keep running. Our job is to make every booth work, every day.”
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About Drinkwell
Drinkwell lowers the cost of producing safe drinking water via proprietary science and technology. Founded in 2013, it works with water utilities, city corporations and governments in Bangladesh and India, where its 700+ deployments have impacted more than 3 million lives to date. In Bangladesh, Drinkwell runs around 300 Water ATM booths in partnership with Dhaka WASA and works with Chattogram WASA, Khulna WASA, Rajshahi City Corporation and Narayanganj City Corporation. www.drinkwell.com
