http://www.unnayannews.net/issue/marginalized/ruralhealth.html
Case Study: ruralHealthandSanitation
By Julhas Alam
Kaoraid, Gazipur -- Five-year old Sohel does not know how lucky he is to have a concrete toilet - made of three slabs and a pan - at his home in this 21st century when scientists are doing research on the details about the Mars and other heavenly bodies. Certainly he has no idea that there are many latrines with modern fittings, and even with small commode-side library. But still Sohel is happy, as he has a mud-and-straw hut and more importantly a 1200-Taka latrine at his home in a village near Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.
"I use this everyday," said Sohel, pointing at the toilet, fenced with tin and jute sacks. "Earlier we had no lavatory at home, we used to go to the riverside or jungle".
Sohel's father, who runs a grocery shop in the village, spent only Taka 350 for the sanitary latrine. "I have got support from the Union Parishad," Mohammed Khaleque said. "My family is happy with the bathroom we have now".
Now Khaleque wants to fence the latrine with a concrete wall. "I am trying to save money so I can buy cement and bricks soon," he said, clearly showing positive attitude about how poor villagers can change their decade-old behavioural pattern so easily with a little help from the authorities.
He used to defecate in open spaces or in the jungle, but earlier nobody came to tell him that it's bad for health. "Now I am ashamed of that because our women used to go to the jungle for defecation," he said."
Like Khaleque, his fellow villagers are also getting benefit from the government's scheme of installing concrete lavatory at Bormi, located near the country's famous Bhawal reserve forest in Gazipur district, 32 kilometres north of Dhaka. The area has been declared 100 percent sanitized, which means each and every household has now concrete latrine.
Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 144 million people, is working hard to declare the nation 100 percent sanitized by 2010.
In a country where almost half of its total population lives on less than one dollar a day and ignorance is pervasive, it is not easy to go ahead with such an ambitious plan of 100 percent sanitation. Kaoraid Union Parishad Chairman Mojibur Rahman Sultan described how difficult it was for him "to bring the villagers back from the jungle" in just two years. He said they started working in 2003 with limited funds, but with heightened inspiration and enthusiasm.
"We live near jungle, we are accustomed to open defecation for decades, so you can easily think what we had to do for that achievement," Sultan told reporters when a WWFJ-APFEJ team comprising water and environment reporters from India, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, China, South Africa, Nepal, Laos, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Vietnam. Cambodia, Argentina, Japan and Bangladesh went there.
Initially, local authorities invited villagers to a mass gathering where opinion leaders raised the issues of using sanitary latrines for better health. The local authorities sought the help of religious leaders, teachers and women representative in the Union Parishad to convince the people. "It works well, people agreed to listen to what we told them," said Sultan adding that they also used local musical and drama groups to motivate the people. "I am happy that after ceaseless efforts, people take it seriously," he said. Importantly, he said, motivation was the main driving force despite limitations of funds.
Like Kaoraid, four other unions have been declared 100 percent sanitised by the authorities while three other unions and one Pourashava are progressing fast in the right direction, said Liaquat Ali, a Bangladesh chapter official of the international development organisation Plan International.
The Spain-based Plan International's Bangladesh chapter has been working in the area since 1998 in the fields of health, micro-credit, environment and education, said Ali, adding that they had worked jointly with local government to have declared the area 100 percent sanitised.
The organisation worked out a crash plan, called Decentralised Total Sanitation Project, which has been popularised in Bengali as "Dishari" or "who shows the path" to motivate the people. "Poeple have inner strength to bring positive change for a better life, we just act like a catalogue," Ali said about the villagers' success in the area.
The World Bank is supporting "Total Sanitation by 2010" programme, and it promised to provide further support to the Union Parishads through the local government strengthening project, said Christine I. Walich, World Bank's Country Director in Bangladesh. She said Bangladesh has many backdrops, but in sectors like sanitation and providing safe water to the people the nation has commendable success.
"Like many developing countries, Bangladesh has its problems, but it also has surprising successes even in the fields of environment, and in particular water management and sanitation," Walich said recently at a discussion in Dhaka.
Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh, Kees Beemsterboer informed the foreign journalists that his embassy has launched a 60 million euro programme on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) to provide drinking water for 8.5 million and sanitation facilities for about 17.6 million rural people in Bangladesh. A highlight of the programme will be to provide improved toilet facilities for women which is rare in Bangladesh, he said.
Secretary General of the World Water Forum of Journalists and Chairman of FEJB Quamrul Islam Chowdhury underscored the need for regular monitoring of the progress to sustain the success. He also called for monitoring the awareness campaign and providing the people with a low-cost sanitary option and putting in place technologies suitable for railway, waterway and highway passengers.
Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, said the government is committed to achieve 100 percent sanitation by 2010 in line with United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The nation's sanitation coverage has reached about 70 percent in just two years from 33 percent in 2003. He termed the achievement "miraculous", saying that strong political commitment, tremendous mass awareness campaign and support to the hard-core poor have changed the reality for a better Bangladesh. Local government institutions are playing a very significant role, Mannan Bhuiyan told the international media representatives. He said the success rate is high but "a lot more should be done" to achieve its target of universal coverage in water and sanitation by the year 2010 .
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