They also called for collaboration between the government and non-government organisations for achieving the goal.

They said if it is accomplished then two other goals of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)- reducing child mortality and ensuring sustainable environment- will also be achieved.

The workshops titled 'Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Programme of Brac' were jointly organised by local government, upazila parishad and Brac at Trishal and Mymensingh sadar upazilas on Tuesday and Wednesday.

At Trishal, the speakers observed that although the target of achieving 100 percent sanitation is going on in full swing, significant number of people still suffer from water-related diseases due to indifference to practice of hygiene.

Around one lakh children under five die each year due to diarrhoea, said AB Siddik, deputy assistant engineer of Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE) of Trishal Upazila, while presenting a paper titled 'Bangladesh: Safe water and sanitation programme'.

He said sanitation not only means providing sanitary latrine to every family but also ensuring the proper usage of latrines and hygiene practice.

Around Tk 500 crore is spent each year in health sector for treating water transmitted diseases including diarrhoea, typhoid and jaundice caused by the absence of hygiene practice, he added.

Siddik underscored the need for utilising media to raise awareness about the importance of hygiene practice.

While presenting a paper on WASH Programme, Bishwajit Sarker, regional health coordinator, Mymensingh said the programme aims at eliminating the practice of using unhygienic latrine and water among rural and underprivileged people through the change of behaviour.

He said the community leaders including local government representatives, ansar and VDP members, retired teachers, religious leaders and small entrepreneurs can play the advocacy role in implementing the WASH Programme.

Dr Rashida Akhter, Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer (UHFPO) of Trishal, said people suffer from various diseases due to lack of knowledge about sanitation and hygiene despite having sanitary latrine.

Khandaker Mustafizur Rahman, chairman of Bailor Union Parishad, pointed out that scarcity of safe water in the area is the major obstacle to sanitation and practice of hygiene.

Speaking at the workshop in Mymensingh, UHFPO MA Aziz called for the provision of punishment in order to stop using of unhygienic water and adopt sanitation practice by the people.

He pointed out that some rural people show reluctance to construct sanitary latrine even after getting them free of cost from the government.

Alamgir Hossain, senior regional manager of Brac Health Programme, was the chief guest at the workshop moderated by Ruhul Amin, manager of Brac Advocacy and Human Rights Unit.

With a view to help achieving MDGs, Brac launched WASH programme at 150 upazilas in May 2006 in collaboration with the government and other NGOs.