To revolutionise sanitation in towns

The government plans to take up a large-scale sanitation and waste-management project, which will focus on 25 municipalities to ensure a safe, sustainable, and inclusive sanitation system.

Under the Tk 2,211-crore project, the authorities will mainly install 12,312 household and 1,350 community toilets in the 25 towns covering all eight divisions, according to the Planning Commission's documents.

The initiative also aims to improve public health and quality of life by developing robust waste management and environmental protection systems.

"If the proposed project is implemented, about 32.6 lakh people in 25 municipalities of the districts will come under safe sanitation," read the documents.

Around 70 percent of the municipalities' residents will be covered under the waste (solid and sewage) management facility. Additionally, the coverage of managed sanitation will increase from 13.4 percent to 70 percent, they mentioned.

Besides, through this initiative, about 25,000 direct and indirect jobs and business opportunities will be generated for the people, the documents stated.

However, experts said implementation following proper policy guidelines will be the main challenge in this regard.

The project is expected to procure 31,496 sewage containers and install 27 sludge-drying systems and 30 solid-waste management plants, the documents state.

It will also focus on the sewerage system, as the authorities will build 347 km of various types of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) drains, 30 production wells, and a 100-kilometre pipeline.

Other purchases will include 100 de-sludging trucks and 50 dump trucks, 270 solid-waste collection vans, 810 hand trolleys, and 25 excavators.

Instead of city-corporation areas, the initiative has been taken for 25 municipalities corresponding to 25 districts in eight divisions.

Of them, Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Panchagarh, and Thakurgaon are the six districts in the Rangpur division. The four districts in the Dhaka division are Gopalganj, Madaripur, Rajbari, and Tangail.

In the Khulna division, the four districts are Chuadanga, Jhenidah, Meherpur and Satkhira.

Besides, three are in Rajshahi and Chattogram divisions; two in Sylhet and Mymensingh; and one in Barishal.

"The Inclusive Sanitation Project in 25 Cities of Bangladesh" may be placed today at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) for approval.

The Local Government Division has taken up the initiative, and the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) is the implementing agency.

Of the Tk 2,211 crore, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will provide Tk 1,882 crore as loans and grants, while TK 329 crore will come from the government exchequer.

The project, which was supposed to start in October 2022, is scheduled to be completed by June 2027.

Contacted, Adil Mohammed Khan, executive director of Institute for Planning and Development (IPD), welcomed the initiative but said its implementation will be a challenge.

Adil said sanitation and waste-management systems in local municipalities are still quite poor. "This initiative will be very impactful if it is implemented following policy guidelines."

He went on to say that every municipality will be allotted around Tk 100 crore. So, its proper utilisation should be ensured. "If the project is not implemented properly, it may just be a waste of money."

Following implementation, proper management with essential facilities over the years is also important, he said.

In the last five years, only a handful of public toilets have been built, said Adil, who is a professor of Jahangirnagar University's urban and regional planning department.

Recent media reports support Adil's claims. The city corporation areas in Dhaka have only 103 public toilets, and they are scattered across 129 wards. If that wasn't bad enough, in 36 of the new wards, there is no sign of this essential facility.

Due to this grave crisis, residents have to face many difficulties. The number of toilets is not only insufficient but most of them are also unhygienic.

The lack of year-round management leaves most of such facilities to deteriorate, Adil said.

Meanwhile, a project-evaluation committee of the planning ministry has asked the authorities to explain and re-fix the high costs of building public toilets, community, and household toilets.

Apart from the cost of design, supervision and reporting, purchasing and monitoring costs should be fixed logically following re-discussion, it said.

The DPHE has conducted a feasibility study, titled "Implementing System in 53 District Level Municipalities [Pourashavas] and 8 City Corporations", funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.