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Chapter 2 Historical Effort to Improve Water and Sanitation
Conditions
The main activities related to Water and Sanitation (WS) projects observed since 1993 are shown in Figure 2.1.
They included evaluations of the existing environmental health situation, educational intervention, research and
development of technologies, the promotion and installation of the developed technologies, and WS case study.
WS activities in Bauniabad have provided a rare opportunity for the research and development (R&D) of drinking
water, sanitation and hygiene improvement programmes among poor for almost a decade; all programmes were
demanded by the people and involved their participation. The activities included a few separate projects funded
by different donors and organizations.
There have been needs for: (i) documenting the experiences gained during the activities in various projects and
(ii) proper knowledge management of the knowledge gained through the documentation. This case study is an
attempt towards achieving these needs.
2.1 Water and Sanitation Evaluation: 1993
During the early 1990s, after the construction of the resettlement with WS and other provisions, Concern, an Irish
NGO, was mainly involved in water, sanitation, drainage and other environmental health improvement efforts in
the area. Their WS programme mainly included education and motivation about sanitation, latrine use, and health
interventions. In addition, under the same programme, they installed and taught about the use of deep tubewells
(Tara pumps) as the original shallow tube-wells had problems in discharging water. They also attempted to
develop a technology and/or establish a mechanism for emptying the pits of the latrines as they filled up with
sludge. Concern commissioned Bilqis Amin Hoque to evaluate the WS situation in 1993 (Hoque et al., 1994a). It
was observed during the evaluation that the installed WS options were fully used by the people. However, the pits
were maintained so poorly that concentrated human waste pollution from the latrines created a serious and huge
problems within the community; the pits were overflowing, leaking or broken (Photo 2.1).
Although all of the houses in the blocks were provided with alternate pit latrines, 74% of the houses surveyed
during this period reported that they had been using only one pit instead of alternating between pits since the
installation of their latrines. They emptied the contents of the pit 1-4 times per year; 69% carrying the contents in
a bucket and dumping it in drains in the settlement, with the rest of them dumping the contents indiscriminately
in other water bodies. In 28% of the houses that were surveyed, the kitchen area was extended into the structure
that included the pits, hence the use of only one pit by the residents. However, the unused pits inside the extended
kitchen areas in the surveyed houses were also found to be full of wastewater and cockroaches (Photo 2.2). The
risks for the transmission of diseases by the insects and leaking pits were high. The people in the community were
found to be lacking in environmental health and WS related operation and maintenance knowledge. Both Concern
staff and the people of the community claimed that they were not involved in the planning and installation of the
original water and sanitation options of the area.
The local social leaders and housewives claimed that the main barriers to the improvement of WS and
environmental conditions were, (i) absence of appropriate WS options (though there were some WS options
available, they were considered inappropriate by the residents), (ii) no involvement of the people in deciding which
WS option was to be installed, or the technological improvement of the installed options from the beginning
of the settlement until the present time (when the interview was conducted), and (iii) limited interest for WS
condition improvement among the more than a dozen government and non-government organizations working
there. The local people, Environmental Health Committee and the then Mayor made a special request to the then
project investigator (Bilqis Amin Hoque) and Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) to transform the
evaluation into an action research project with the aim of helping the community to solve the existing water and
sanitation related biological disaster.
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