With a very high density of river systems, large parts of Bangladesh remain submerged during five months of monsoon. Climate change has increased the flooding recent years – now Bangladesh has floods two times a year. Therefore, millions of people living in river basins lack basic facilities like electricity and telephone services because development has been concentrated around paved roads.

Rivers are vital to local farming, but farming methods and agricultural runoff take their toll on the health of the rivers, and the rivers make it difficult to reach villagers with information and education, which has negatively impacted the health and livelihoods of fishermen cum farmers.

Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha realized that the rivers do not have to be barriers to information, they can be communication channels. Shidhulai is working to improve quality of life in flood prone areas by taking services to the people by boats.