Access to safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities, while taken for granted by many city dwellers who don’t even think about them, are a luxury to countless people in Bangladesh in the rural areas.
Not only that, in the wake of Covid-19, ensuring proper sanitation and hygiene is paramount to the disease not spreading further. Additionally, a lack of access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation has been connected to a number of diseases, particularly diarrheal diseases.
To that end, it is encouraging to see that the Bangladesh Rural Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for Human Capital Development Project is attempting to address this issue, helping about 600,000 rural people avail safe and clean water while also providing access to improved sanitation services to over 3.6 million rural people.
In addition, the project, which will cover 78 upazilas in Mymensingh, Rangpur, Chittagong, and Sylhet divisions, and also help set up thousands of hand-washing stations and address menstrual health in the rural areas.
It is quite astonishing that, according to data on rural areas, only 3% of households have piped water connections. The government must look into increasing that number, and therefore, forward-thinking projects such as these can help build a more equal nation for the future.
While there is no questioning the advancements Bangladesh has made in recent times, Bangladesh continues to have too many vulnerable people who remain without access to even the most basic of amenities others take for granted.
Development must be equitable, and as such, the very minimum is that basic amenities such as safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities are ensured for all.
