Investigation of appropriate sanitation technologies for environmentally critical areas of Bangladesh

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.