RURAL BANGLADESH - PreventionWeb

Socioeconomic Profile Findings
Table 16: Housing by Wealth Group by WFP Priority Zone
Wealth Relatively well-to- Middle Poor Extreme Poor
Group
WFP
Zone
do
Northwest Pucca house & Pucca or earthen Straw & tin roof, Earthen floors & wall,
floor; tin roof floor, tin roof, Earthen walls & straw roof,
5-7 rooms
2-5 rooms, floor, 2-3 rooms, Straw/jute stick,
pucca latrine kacha latrine bamboo partition 1-2 rooms
Drought Brick house, pucca
roof, floor & walls,
5-6 rooms, 1-2 acres
homestead with
garden & pond
Coastal
zone
Concrete floor,
Tin roof & walls
Char zone ‘Chowchala’ pucca
floor/walls,
Tin roof/walls,
3-4 rooms
Haor zone ‘Chowchala’ pucca,
tin, & brick material,
Earthen wall, 4
rooms, guest room
CHT Big wooden
platform house, tin
roof, concrete floor,
latrine attached to
house
2.2 ACCESS TO WATER
Brick house, tin
roof, earthen or
pucca walls,
4-5 rooms
Earthen/tin walls,
earthen floor
‘Chowchala’
pucca floor,
tin roof/walls,
2-3 rooms
‘Chowchala’ tin,
pucca floor,
earthen wall,
2-3 rooms
Platform house,
bamboo walls,
grass/tin roof,
kacha latrine
Kacha floor,
Several rooms
43
Earthen walls,
Tin roof,
1-2 rooms
Smaller earthen
house, tin roof,
bamboo structure
‘Duchala’ tin
roof, bamboo
walls, kacha floor,
1 room
Tin roof, bamboo,
hay & mud wall,
thatched,
1 room
Stilt house,
Bamboo walls,
Separate kitchen,
Kacha or no
latrine, grass roof,
2-3 rooms
Tin made house,
Jute, bamboo,
Grass/straw roof,
Earthen floor,
1 room
Earthen floor,
straw/coconut leaf walls,
tin or straw roof
Straw hut,
Bamboo/straw roof
Earthen floor,
1 room
Straw hut,
Jute stick wall,
No kitchen
1 room
Small stilt house,
bamboo walls, no latrine
or kitchen, thatched roof,
1 room
1 year durability
Figure 10 assesses the various primary sources of water utilized by households. Rural
Bangladesh households continue to rely overwhelmingly on tubewells as their primary
source of drinking water. Approximately 97 percent of households across the six regions
regularly drink tubewell water, despite the data from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where fewer
than half of the population have access to tubewell water. Instead, approximately one third
of the population in CHT rely on water from wells and 17 percent drink water from springs,
rivers or ponds. In the coastal region approximately four percent of households drink piped
water outside of the house while in drought prone region about five percent of the
households access potable water from public taps.
Unlike the rest of rural Bangladesh, access to clean potable water is problematic in the CHT,
where the hard bedrock underlying much of the hilly land renders tubewell installation
difficult. As a result, tubewells are very often not drilled deep enough, dry up quickly, and
remain out of circulation for years. Many of the tubewells or other water sources installed in
CHT communities are poorly maintained, a result of poor extension services on the part of
the DPHE combined with lack of community initiative. Women and children, who rely on
secondary water sources, can spend up to two hours, two or three times a day collecting