Only 39pc people enjoy good sanitation

Only 39 percent people across the country are provided with good sanitation facilities although sanitation for all is supposed to be achieved by 2020, speakers at a workshop said yesterday.
They added that the problem lies in demand side, not in supply side and this should be considered seriously.
Brac, Water Aid and IRC for Water Supply and Sanitation jointly organised the three-day regional workshop titled 'South Asia Sanitation and Hygiene' at Brac training centre at Rajendrapur yesterday where more than 50 participants from Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh took part and shared their experiences.
It is found that many people in the South Asian countries are not accustomed to using sanitary latrine and maintaining proper hygiene, which leads to different types of communicable diseases. It is not that they do not have access or cannot afford proper sanitation rather it is their culture and it is very much difficult to change people's behaviour, said speakers at the workshop that began yesterday with the slogan 'Beyond construction, use by all'.
Inaugurating the workshop, Executive Director of Brac Mahabub Hossain said, “Setting up a sanitary latrine cannot do much. We have to ensure that people are using it. Because if we don't create demand for sanitary latrine for them by creating awareness and educating on personal hygiene, they would not use it as there is a culture of open defecation in many places of the region.”
“We will incorporate the knowledge from the workshop in our Water and Sanitation Programme,” he said.
“It is a big challenge to change the behaviour of people who are not using sanitary latrine. Second challenge is how to make this sanitation available to the poor people living in slum areas and then to run affordable technology for community managed toilets that is important for urban sanitation,” said Tom Palakudiyil, IRC head of Asia region, adding that in this workshop the participants will share the best practices and will find ways to motivate the policymakers for sustainable programmes in this regard.
He also suggested developing indigenous ways to teach people the use of sanitary latrine and motivate them to go through hygiene practice.
Joep Verhagan of IRC and Carolien van der Voorden of Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council also spoke at the inaugural session.