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Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background and Purpose of Report In the developing world, approximately two out of every ten people are without access to safe water supply; five out of ten people live without adequate sanitation (excreta disposal), and nine out of ten people do not have their wastewaters treated to any degree (IMF/World Bank, 2003). The percentage of people using improved drinking water sources rose from 77% (4.1 billion) in 1990 to 83% (5.2 billion) in 2002, and also during the same period, the proportion of the world’s population with access to improved sanitation increased from 49% (2.6 billion) to 58% (3.6 billion), respectively (WHO/UNICEF, 2004). The majority of people in the world who lack water and sanitation live in Asia and Africa. A respective comparison between the total investment in water supply and sanitation during 1990- 2002 shows the relative disregard of sanitation related problems (WHO/UNICEF, 2004). Target number 10 under the Millennium Development Goals to Ensure Environmental Sustainability aims to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. In addition, sanitation target number 11 under the same goal as amended by the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg aims to halve the proportion of people without adequate sanitation by 2015. Additionally, other goals to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women along with reducing child mortality, water resource management and other issues for sustainable development are all linked with management of safe drinking water and sanitation (IMF/World Bank, 2003). The water and sanitation problems are chronic in developing countries, and there is a great urgency to address them. Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation particularly emphasize the importance of increasing access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a central element of poverty reduction efforts. The countries have to play the leading and key roles in addressing the situations, while the international community and development partners will provide support as much as possible. The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) has assigned the year 2004-2005 for water, sanitation and human settlement. This means that it is high time that the challenges of sustainable water and sanitation are addressed based on proper consideration of information from real examples. In this report, we present a case study on water and sanitation (WS) improvement among the urban poor in Bauniabad, Dhaka, Bangladesh between 1993 and 2004, which was based on the experience gained from either conducting the interventions and/or this case study. This case study has both global and local implications. Rapid and/or unplanned urbanization together with the growth of the urban poor who face WS problems is a major challenge of poor settlements in most developing countries. The objectives of the case study were to: (i) describe the water and sanitation situations and options between 1993 and 2004, (ii) determine the functioning conditions of the existing water and sanitation options, (iii) document the process and results obtained in the WS efforts during the period, (iv) draw the lessons and, (v) disseminate the findings among the local, national and international stakeholders. The report is structured in the following order: Chapter 1: Introduction, which introduces the background and purpose of this report in addition to brief information of the case study site. Chapter 2: Historical Effort to Improve Water and Sanitation Conditions, which documents all the water and sanitation projects/studies since 1993. Chapter3: Methodology, which deals with data collection, water analysis and data management. Chapter 4: Social Variables, which presents an analysis of selected social and related variables. Chapter 5: Water, which deals with water supply and its use, performance of the options, water quality, institutional aspects and costs, community and other stakeholder participation, conclusions and further steps to be taken. Chapter 6: Sanitation, which includes information related to excreta disposal practices, performance of the options, environmental sanitation and costs. Chapter 7: People’s Knowledge and Hygiene Practices, which presents an analysis of selected WS related knowledge, attitudes and practices at personal and community levels. Chapter 8: Lessons Learned and Recommendations, which presents the lessons learned and recommendations based on field observations, the case study and the national dissemination workshop. In addition, the appendix section includes a summary of the questionnaire used to collect the data, selected detailed analysis, and the programme and summary report of the national dissemination workshop. 1.2 Brief Information of Case Study Site Bangladesh lies in the northeastern part of South Asia. It got its independence in 1971. It has an area of 147,570 km 2 . It is one of the most densely populated countries of the world, with a population increasing from approximately 74 million in 1973 to 129 million in 2001. In addition the annual growth rate was 1.48% and the population density was 876 persons per km 2 in 2001 (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2002). Despite a steadily declining birth rate because of intensified efforts for population control, it is estimated that the country’s population may exceed 176 million by 2025, increasing the population density to about 1200 persons per km 2 (Ahmad, 2000). The effects of population 18
growth will continue to be felt most severely in the urban sector, where the growth rate over the past two decades has been between 5 and 6% per annum, and is likely to be similar for many years to come. Currently, the urban population accounts for about 20% of the total population, and the proportion is expected to rise to 53% by 2025 (Rasheed, 2000). Bangladesh is also overburdened with an extremely high rate of poverty. According to the Human Development Report released by UNDP in 2003, the GDP per capita was 1,610 PPP $US, the Human Development Index Rank was 139, the adult literacy rate (age 15 and above) was 40.6%, the population living below $US 1 a day was 36.0%, the infant mortality rate was 51 per every 1000 live births, the rates of mortality for children aged under 5 was 77 per every 1000 live births, and children under the age of 5 who were underweight for their age group was 48% (UNDP, 2003). Bangladesh, a disaster prone country, is experiencing one of the highest rates of unplanned urbanization. Except for the hilly regions in the northeast and southeast parts, the whole country consists of low and flat land formed mainly by the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna river systems. It has three broad types of landscapes: floodplains (80%), terraces (8%), and hills (12%). Floods are a recurrent phenomenon. Nearly 20% of the area is inundated, even in a year of normal precipitation. The 1988 and 1998 floods affected about 60% of the land area and about half the population was directly affected. The economic development of the country depends upon a host of factors, one of which is high and stable level of agricultural production. Most of the people earn a living from agriculture related activities. However, agricultural growth, critically depends upon weather conditions. Bangladesh is likely to be one of the worst climate change/variability affected countries of the world (Huq et al., 1999). The WHO-UNICEF Assessment Report in 2004 showed that the percentage of people with access to improved drinking water in Bangladesh was 71% in 1990, and later rose to 75% in 2002 (WHO/UNICEF, 2004). The relatively low figures regarding the access of improved drinking water to the people of Bangladesh is due to arsenic contamination of groundwater. Massive arsenic contamination of groundwater has been publicly discussed and indicated since 1997. According to the British Geological Survey and Government of Bangladesh sampled survey conducted in 1998 and reported in early 1999, 35 million people were believed to be exposed to an arsenic concentration in drinking water exceeding 0.05 mg/l, and 57 million people were exposed to a concentration exceeding 0.01 mg/l (DPHE and DFID, 2000) 2 . This contamination of groundwater (drinking water) is one of the current most demanding and complex challenges of the country. However, Dhaka city, the town where the case study was conducted, is not affected by arsenic contamination and thus this issue is not included in this study. Dhaka is the capital city. It experienced a growth of 314% during 1974-1991 (Rasheed, 2000). According to a 1995 survey in Dhaka, the absolute poverty line and the hard-core poverty line of Dhaka are 54.9% and 31.9%, respectively. In addition, with an estimated 9 million people living in an area of 1,339 km 2 in metropolitan Dhaka (Islam et al., 1997), the population density is calculated to be roughly 6720 persons per km 2 . According to the same survey, only about 3.2% own land, and 89% of households, whose average size is 4.2 persons per household, live in a single room. Nearly 30-40% of the population of Dhaka lives in slums. Slums are informal houses, built with very poor structural quality, to supply low-cost dwellings to the poor in densely populated areas. The slum houses in Dhaka usually have minimum or no sanitation or utility services and have extremely poor environmental conditions (Islam et al., 1997). The poor of Dhaka city in general have little access to sanitation, street lighting, garbage disposal, drainage and other services. Water supply and sanitation situations in Dhaka are presented in Table 1.1. It shows that in 2000, 100% of both the slum and non-slum dwellers drank tap/tube well/dug well water, but there was no absolute certainty that this water was considered safe. As presented in Table 1.1, majority of the poor people of Dhaka in 2000 did not have access to improved sanitation facilities such as water seal toilets, flush toilets and pit latrines. At that time, they mainly had access to hanging latrines, which is a facility in where defecation takes place where the excreta goes directly into water bodies or ditches without any treatment. Pit latrines include holes lined by concrete rings and a slab on the top of the rings. The water seal or flush toilets may have been connected to one of three treatment options; these options included the Dhaka sewerage system, septic tanks and biogas facilities. However, these types of connections are only accessible to an extremely minute number of the slum population. Table 1.1: Water supply and sanitation situations in Dhaka. Category Drinking water sources Sanitation facilities Tap/Tube well/Dug well Water seal/ Pit latrines Hanging latrine/ Flush toilet Open defecation % % % % Dhaka slums 100 1.6 20.3 78.1 Dhaka non-slums 100 61.5 8 .7 29.8 Source: UNICEF, 2000 2 WHO guideline value for arsenic in drinking water is 0.01 mg/l. 19
Page 2 and 3: Authors Dr. Bilqis Amin Hoque, Envi
Page 5 and 6: Contents Foreword 5 Executive Summa
Page 7 and 8: Foreword Water and sanitation (WS)
Page 9 and 10: drinking water. All the various sam
Page 11 and 12: Lessons Learned and Recommendations
Page 13 and 14: List of Tables, Figures, Maps and P
Page 15: List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
Page 18 and 19: Photo 1.1 : A Street in Bauniabad P
Page 22 and 23: Bauniabad was established as a spec
Page 24 and 25: 2.2 Water and Sanitation Educationa
Page 26 and 27: system in Bauniabad. For the trial
Page 28 and 29: scopes (financial resources) to obs
Page 30 and 31: Chapter 3 Methodology The cross-sec
Page 32 and 33: Chapter 4 Social Variables The soci
Page 34 and 35: when the people found the biogas ba
Page 36 and 37: Table 5.1: Physical performance and
Page 38 and 39: As the supply was not continuous, t
Page 40 and 41: It was observed that initially thos
Page 42 and 43: Chapter 6 Sanitation Sanitation pro
Page 44 and 45: 6.3 Costs and Financial Aspects The
Page 46 and 47: and E in different years (1996-2002
Page 48 and 49: The effluents from the systems of B
Page 50 and 51: 48 • There should be research and
Page 52 and 53: 7.4 Observations of Water Use Pract
Page 54 and 55: Chapter 8 Lessons Learned and Recom
Page 56 and 57: the people had access to safe hygie
Page 58 and 59: Appendix 1 Summary Report of the Fi
Page 60 and 61: 14:00-15:30 Technical Session II co
Page 62 and 63: Appendix 2 Base Line Survey Form St
Page 64 and 65: SANITATION S-1: Use of Latrine:
Page 66 and 67: Table A-3.1: Results of the analysi
Page 68 and 69: 66 Table A-4.1: Sources of water us
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Table A-4.3: Sanitation practices i
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human poverty. UNDP, New York. UNIC
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Edited by L.S. Clesceri, A.E. Green
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