Abstract:
Although Bangladesh government claims that sanitation coverage in the country in
2007 was about 87% in rural areas and 84-97% in urban areas, however, the effective
sustainable sanitation coverage is far below than the reported coverage. According to
Joint Monitoring Programme of WHO and UNICEF this rate is about 53% on average
in both urban and rural areas of the country. Therefore, the sanitation coverage all
over the country is not satisfactory at all. Several studies also show that this coverage
is even poorer in the environmentally critical areas of Bangladesh. This study is a
kind of investigation which focuses on low cost, appropriate, sustainable and
environment-friendly area-specific sanitation technological options (hardware) for
environmentally critical areas of Bangladesh. The Environmental Conservation Rules
1997 of Bangladesh identifies 12 environmental critical areas. The hill tracts of
Chittagong, Hakaluki haor area at Kulaura and Sariakandi char area at Bogra were
three of these areas. Besides, the hard soil area of Majira union at Bogra district was
considered purposively for its unique soil formation. Therefore, the aim of the study
was to investigate the appropriate sanitation technologies for environmentally critical
areas of Bangladesh. Data were collected through questionnaire survey, FGDs, indepth
interviews and observation. Literature review, organization visits and
interviews were done. The study found that there were no area-specific appropriate
sanitation technologies (hardware) in practice; some options were present but in
experimental level; only ring slab system was not appropriate for all the areas and
water sealed technology would not be appropriate for all the critical areas.
