Bangladesh can reduce poverty and boost growth by taking immediate measures to upgrade the quality of water and sanitation, a World Bank report said on Thursday.
The report found that despite demonstrating remarkable progress in improving access to water and sanitation, a total of 41% of all improved water sources in Bangladesh have been contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
The findings in the report also suggested a high prevalence of fecal contamination. in drinking water, which, it said, affects the rich and the poor, and the rural and the urban population equally.
“Poor water quality and sanitation can hold back a country’s potential because unsafe water and poor sanitation are linked to nutritional disadvantages in early-childhood,” said Sereen Juma, the World Bank’s acting country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.
“Bangladesh has made great strides in expanding access to water and can build on that progress by focusing on improving the quality of water and sanitation.”
Titled “Promising Progress: A Diagnostic of Water Supply, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH), and Poverty in Bangladesh”, the report was launched at a Dhaka hotel on Thursday.
The study, which is part of the World Bank’s WASH Poverty Diagnostics initiative in 18 countries including Bangladesh, said the poorest quintile of the population suffers three times more from water and sanitation related gastrointestinal diseases.
Bacteria
AKM Ibrahim, chief engineer of the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), attributed the bacteria contamination of water mainly to household management of water reservoirs.
“They mostly remain filthy, even for months,” he said. “The use of quality materials for piped-water supply and expanding an improved workforce can help fight the problem.”
The presence of E. Coli bacteria have been found in 80% of private piped-water taps sampled across the country, a similar rate to water retrieved from ponds, according to the report.
Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a bacteria that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms. Most E.coli strains are harmless, but some can cause serious food poisoning.
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) is a bacterium that can cause severe food-borne disease. In most cases, the illness is self-limiting, but it may lead to a life-threatening disease including haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), especially in young children and the elderly.
Arsenic
Furthermore, the report found 13% of Bangladesh’s water sources contain arsenic levels above a safe threshold. Chittagong and Sylhet divisions suffer most from arsenic contamination, which occurs naturally, the report stated.
The World Bank further observed that during a natural disaster, about a third of households in the country’s high-risk areas switch to contaminated and unimproved water sources.
The report findings claimed the coastal areas are increasingly suffering from salinity-intrusion, leaving the poor more affected.
In addition, about 50 million people in Bangladesh still use shared and rudimentary toilets, with just 28% toilets equipped with soap and water.
According to the report, the water quality of Bangladesh is poor even though 98% of people have access to water from technologically advanced water sources.
Urban slums have poor access to clean water and safe sanitation, whereas large-city slums have five times less access to improved sanitation and have the highest rates of childhood undernutrition in the country.
However, there was no specific mention of women’s sanitation in the report.
Toilets deficit
“There is scope for Bangladesh to improve access to sanitation beyond the household level to public places, schools, health facilities, and workplaces,” the report’s co-author, George Joseph, said.
“Only about half of manufacturing enterprises in Bangladesh have toilets. Only half of the primary schools have separate toilets for girls, and one in four adolescent girls miss school during menstruation. A safe water and sanitation environment will encourage more women to participate in the workforce.”
WaterAid Bangladesh’s Country Director Dr Khairul Islam said a large number of toilets, especially in public places or facilities, are either in a dilapidated condition or dysfunctional.
“The awareness of using sanitary pads for schoolgirls is so weak and the scenario is even worse in the rural areas,” Khairul said.
Muhammad Nazrul Islam, the state minister for water resources and the chief guest of the report launching program, said the government is mainly focused on resolving the problems relating to drainage system, irrigation and flood control.
“The government, nevertheless, is optimistic that the proposed Delta Plan-2100 will greatly help sort out the water-related issues in the country,” he said.
Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), said despite Bangladesh transforming from a rural to an urbanised country, sanitation system in the cities did not develop much in line with the changes.
“The overall urban drainage system, sanitation and water treatment are still in a poor state,” he observed.
“The poor people living in the cities are the most affected group since a big chunk of them resides in low-lying areas and in places lacking proper access to sanitation.”
Zillur called for a coordinated and long-term plan to be designed to address this issue.
“The government has to consider the WASH-cycle a value chain,” he said. “Terminals across the country need special attention when it comes to quality sanitation since hundreds of thousands of people throng there every day.”
Thursday’s event was moderated by Mark John Ellery, the World Bank’s senior water and sanitation expert, and featured speeches from Prof Dr Md Abul Hashem Khan, the line director at Directorate General of Health Services; and Takuya Kamata, the World Bank’s practice manager.