Hundreds of villagers in seven unions of Tahirpur upazila in Sunamganj are falling victims of various diseases and malnutrition due to the absence of proper sanitation facilities.
150 villages out of 252 in the upazila are deprived of sanitary latrines. The situation is worse in the haor areas, where villagers struggle a lot even to go about their everyday life.
According to the upazila Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), the percentage of sanitation in Tahirpur is 43.05 leaving a great number of people out of the sanitation coverage.
A recent visit to Patargaon village, situated 10 kilometre from Tahirpur upazila sadar, found that there was no proper sanitary latrine. Even the only school of the village, Patargaon Government Primary School, lacked the facility.
Mashkura Akter, a student of fifth grade, said the male students could use the canal to relieve themselves. But this was even not possible for female students.
One of the most densely populated villages in the upazila, Patargaon has about 800 people in 120 families. Though each family is supposed to have its own sanitary latrine, there is only 20 make-shift unhygienic latrines.
Females of the village have to go to a nearby dead canal to respond to the nature’s call before dawn-break. And the children are seen to defecate out in the open, spreading diseases and stench throughout the village.
To make the sitution worse, villagers use the water of the canal for household work since there is also a lack of clean water in the area. There are only six tubewells in the village.
Ayesha Banu, 60 of the village said they face a lot of problems while going out in the dark. And during day time, they cannot even go out.
Lufia Begum said: “Our children are suffering from diseases throughout the year. We want the governement to arrange proper sanitary latrines for us.”
Since most of the villagers are day labourers and earn their livelihood by lifting sand and stones in the nearby Jadukata river, they are not able to afford even the ring toilets.
Moreover, Patargaon villagers lack personal and family hygiene making them prone to waterborne diseases during the monsoon when the water level rises in the haor areas.
According to the upazila health complex, 70 percent of the patients who come to the hospital complaint about waterborne disease. The doctors blamed the poor sanitation situation of the upazila.
The same situation prevails in other 45 villages of the union.
Union Parishad member of Dakkhin Sripur Mohibur Rahman said: “Many people in my union cannot afford a proper sanitary latrine. Moreover, there is an acute crisis of land in the villages.”
Chairman of the same union Biswajit Sarkar said at least 4000 sanitary latrines were needed for his union but it was not possible to provide due to financial constraint.
However, DPHE official Saikat Roy emphasised on increasing awareness of the villagers along with providing sanitary latrines.
“It is true there is a lack of space to establish sanitary latrines in the haor areas. But as long as the villagers are not made aware and local cost effective methods are devised, the situation will not be resolved,” he said.
Saikat further added that he had informed the authorities for providing sanitary latrines but he was yet to get any budget allocation.
