Speakers at a seminar yesterday said the Dalit communities in the capital as well as across the country had been suffering from acute crisis of safe water.
They also observed that this underprivileged section of the society had very little access to sanitation.
Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights Movement (BDERM) and Nagorik Uddyog jointly organised the seminar titled “Water and Sanitation: Access and Reality of Dalit Community” at the Cirdap Auditorium in the capital yesterday.
Nagorik Uddyog Executive Director Zakir Hossain moderated the event while Project Coordinator Afsana Binte Amin presented the keynote paper.
Afsana pointed out that there was no adequate information as to what extent the Dalit community was deprived of water and sanitation facilities. “It requires a study at the national level to depict the real picture.”
As per the government strategy for the poor people, a person must have access to at least 20 litres of water every day and one latrine for each family; if not possible, two families would use one latrine.
But getting 20 litres of water a day is a dream for a person of a Dalit community, Afsana said.
Speaking as the chief guest, Md Israfil Alam MP admitted that the Dalit community was suffering from severe water crisis. “Being a lawmaker, I will raise the issue in parliament,” he told the seminar.
Md Khairul Islam, local representative of WaterAid Bangladesh, said: “We have to raise our voice strongly to demand water as fundamental right for every citizen.”
Sunil Kumar Mridha, president of BDERM, said the women workers in tea gardens of Sylhet region had been deprived of sanitation facilities. “The labourers drink unsafe water from ditches, and suffer from various diseases including jaundice and liver cirrhosis,” he added.
Speaking as a special guest, Dhaka Wasa MD engineer Taksim A Khan said: “We are covering only the Dhaka City. We have a plan to supply water to all people of the city including in all the slums legally by 2015.”
