Wagtech Regional Research and Technology Centre – Dhaka, Bangladesh

Recently Wagtech International, together with a local technology development NGO, Integrated Approach for Community Development (IACD), took the initiative to establish a Regional Research and Training Centre near Dhaka, Bangladesh. The aim of Wagtech and IACD was to establish a “Centre of Excellence” for the research, development and design of appropriate and affordable water testing technologies for the developing world.

This centre is a totally new and unique concept which brings together a private sector company and NGO partners under a common goal. The participating partners have agreed to make the centre available and open to other NGO, Development and Donor organisations for the sharing of information and water testing technology developments.

Created specifically to serve the needs of the many development organisations in Bangladesh and throughout the region, the primary purpose of this site is to carry out research & development of low cost, safe water testing and sanitation options for the poor of the region. The centre provides realistic conditions for Wagtech International to conduct research and testing of new water testing products before bringing them to the marketplace as well as a natural setting to conduct the necessary training for our customers in local languages wherever possible. IACD were selected to carry out the technology development, design and practical demonstration component and Wagtech International provides funding to run the Centre and for IACD to conduct their research and development.

Wagtech supports the on-site laboratory set up to test the effectiveness of these water testing technologies. Technologies under development must meet stringent criteria such as; affordable to the poor, ability to be produced locally from locally available materials and socially acceptable to the families who will use them.

The Centre was established on one acre of land and was designed to represent a typical rural village setting with authentic village households. The site features both water testing and remediation technologies. There are working examples of hand-dug wells, boreholes with hand-pumps, bladder tanks, portable distribution systems with stand-pipes, pit latrines and basic water treatment systems.

The site also features an advanced water quality testing laboratory and manufacturing capability for the Wagtech low-cost Arsenic test kits. International and Local NGOs utilise the centre for practical demonstrations of appropriate, low-cost, environmentally friendly, safe water and sanitation technologies which may then be implemented within their own projects.

Wagtech International feels strongly that in order to participate in the development market with its advanced water testing technologies, it must also actively participate in the development itself. All over the developing world it is generally the poor that are most severely affected by issues of unsafe water and sanitation.

Wagtech believes that if tests are conducted and unsafe water  conditions are revealed, then the testing organisation should also  be able to offer affordable remediation advice and technologies which allow the provision of safe drinking water.

This is the focus of the centre, to research, develop and test such safe water options.