Poor sanitation meant Surma valley workers and their families were often sick, but a hygiene project has brought them a healthy water supply and safe toilets Bina Patru is unsure of her age. She thinks she is in her mid-40s, but knows that she has spent a lifetime toiling in the tea bushes that carpet the rolling hills of the Surma valley of northern Bangladesh....Bangladesh’s tea pickers are among the most excluded and marginalised communities, earning 85 taka (barely $1) for a day of back-breaking work. Until recently, notable among the privations has been the lack of access to safe water, toilets and the basics of sanitation and hygiene on estates such as Gulni, where Bina picks tea, a 90-minute drive from the thriving provincial capital of Sylhet. Open defecation was widespread, near the same streams that provide water for washing and cleaning, and waterborne illnesses were common, particularly among the most vulnerable – young and old. But now, on a dirt track that cuts through the tea estate, is a simple new standpipe on a cement base, delivering plentiful fresh water...Bina...[says]...I used to miss days at work because of illness and so I wasn’t paid. Our children were often sick – my daughters suffered from diarrhoea and dysentery when they were growing up – and sometimes I had to look after them rather than work.