On a school day at a renowned government primary school in Mirpur, children were seen waiting in long queues to use limited sanitation facilities. Some hurried back to their classrooms, where they sat close together because the rooms did not have enough space for the students.
A two-day visit by the Dhaka Tribune to several government primary schools in Mirpur found persistent gaps in basic WASH facilities, with students and guardians reporting inadequate running water, poor maintenance and a lack of soap.
The problems varied from school to school, but the lack of basic sanitation and hygiene facilities was a common concern. While some schools had limited facilities for the number of students, others lacked proper arrangements for wash blocks and maintaining hygiene.
At Hazi Yousuf Ali Government Primary School in Mirpur, more than 1,000 students share just a few toilets, and the school has no handwashing facility. Besides, the existing toilets were not usable.
According to official data, the school has 1,007 students and 22 teachers, with three toilets, no wash block and one listed drinking-water source. This means roughly 336 students for every toilet.
The ratio is far below the sanitation standards previously recommended under Bangladesh’s Third Primary Education Development Program (PEDP III), which set a benchmark of one toilet for every 50 girls and one boys’ toilet for every 75 boys. PEDP III also moved towards providing WASH blocks with handwashing facilities instead of relying only on standalone toilets.
Globally, the WHO-Unicef Joint Monitoring Program considers a school to have a basic sanitation service only when improved toilets are single-sex and usable; meaning accessible, functional and private. Basic hygiene requires a handwashing facility with both water and soap available.
The conditions observed at other schools like Sholohati, Baghbari Govt Primary and Kalyanpur government primary remains similar. Moreover, concerns remain not only about the number of facilities but also about whether existing sanitation and hygiene arrangements are usable and adequate for children.
Inadequate facilities, mounting pressure
At Hazi Yousuf Ali Government Primary School, the pressure on the existing facilities becomes particularly visible during breaks, when a large number of students need to use them at the same time.
A guardian in this area, Abdur Rahman, said the school had only a few toilets for such a huge number of students and that the facilities were in poor condition.
He said: “The smell from the toilets sometimes reaches classrooms during hot weather.”
“There are no proper hygiene facilities at all. Safe drinking water is also almost absent,” he added.
Another guardian, Selina Rahman, said the toilet used by girls was very dirty.
She said: "Sometimes my child stops drinking water at school hours because she does not want to use the toilets."
The concerns are significant against the basic WASH criteria used by the WHO-UNICEF JMP. A toilet that is broken, inaccessible or cannot be used properly does not qualify as a basic sanitation service, while a handwashing facility without soap is classified as only a limited hygiene service.
A daily struggle for basic hygiene
For some students, the condition of the sanitation facilities has changed how they use even the school’s water supply.
Saif Islam, a primary student in this area, said water from a tap sometimes appeared dirty and sometimes was unavailable. He said he often avoided drinking water at school so that he would not have to use the toilet and instead used the toilet at home after returning from school.
“Pure water is not available,” he said, adding that without a wash block, students sometimes eat biscuits or tiffin without properly washing their hands.
The disparity in sanitation provision is also visible in other Mirpur schools visited for the report.
Kalyanpur Model Government Primary School has 300 students and two toilets, while Bagbari Government Primary School has 459 students and four toilets.
Public health expert Dr Shamsur Rahman said: “Lack of safe drinking water and clean toilets at the school level is not merely an infrastructural problem; it poses a direct health risk to children.
He added: “When toilets are unclean or insufficient in number, many children reduce their water intake throughout the day and hold in their urine, which can increase the risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs) and kidney complications. Moreover, the absence of proper handwashing facilities, including wash blocks, can facilitate the rapid spread of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea and typhoid in classrooms.”
Metropolitan schools lack cleaners
Mirpur Thana Education Officer (TEO) Jamila Akter said infrastructure-related problems are expected to be addressed gradually through development projects, while officials of the Local Government Engineering Department could provide details about infrastructure works.
She said efforts were also under way to improve hygiene facilities but pointed to a broader problem in metropolitan government primary schools.
“In metropolitan government primary schools, we have teachers only; there are no cleaners allocated for maintaining and preserving these facilities,” she said.
Prof Dr S M Hafizur Rahman of the Institute of Education and Research, Dhaka University, said: “A healthy school environment should be a core concern because primary school years are important for children’s physical and mental development.”
He said proper wash blocks, clean drinking water and hygienic toilets should be treated as basic requirements rather than optional facilities, warning that inadequate WASH facilities can create health risks and affect children’s development and attendance. That's why, maintenance of government materials and infrastructure is also necessary.
What the authority says
Hazi Yousuf Ali Government Primary School headteacher Md Saddam Ibn Khan acknowledged that infrastructure problems exist and said the higher authorities were aware of them.
He said students face difficulties because proper hygiene facilities cannot always be ensured due to infrastructure constraints, adding that he hoped the necessary work would be completed soon.
State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Bobby Hajjaj told Dhaka Tribune: “The government is formulating comprehensive guidelines to establish minimum standards for infrastructure, sanitation and safety in primary schools, including standards for clean drinking water, wash blocks and hygienic toilets."
“We are currently formulating comprehensive national guidelines to establish minimum infrastructure, sanitation, and safety standards across all primary schools in Bangladesh. This is not just about building infrastructure; it includes integrating 12 practical life-skills themes, such as health, hygiene, and safety, directly into the primary curriculum. Furthermore, we are treating educational institutions as partners to ensure that clean drinking water, proper wash blocks, and hygienic toilet facilities become non-negotiable standards for every pupil,” he added.