Inadequate access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services continues to pose a significant and preventable health risk in the country mainly due to the lack of attention by the authorities as well as adequate budgetary allocation despite growing public awareness about the WASH issue.

“Awareness has increased among people in our country for the last few years as people now try to use safe drinking water and improved toilets, and wash their hands. But the lack of safe drinking water is still a major crisis in our country,” Prof Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, a public health expert, told the Daily Sun.

He said there is a lack of supply of safe drinking water in urban areas, including the capital, due to unsafe piping and sourcing systems and in coastal areas due to increasing salinity in water. “The government has to take a long-term plan to ensure safe drinking water.”

Be-Nazir Ahmed, also former director (Disease Control) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said the country’s people suffer from various infectious and communicable diseases, including paratyphoid, typhoid, jaundice, diarrhoea, cholera, respiratory illnesses, Hepatitis A, blood dysentery, conjunctivitis and skin and worm diseases, for the lack of safe water and proper hygiene and sanitation.

According to the DGHS, 1,27,956 Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) cases and 200 deaths were reported in the country from 15 November 2023 to 8 March 2024. During the period, 2,99,307 diarrhoea cases and five deaths were also logged.

The JMP (Joint Monitoring Programme) Report 2023 said 69.46 million people (41%) in Bangladesh were deprived of safely managed drinking water in 2022. At the same time, 117.2 million people (69%) were deprived of safely managed sanitation during the period.

The report further said 71.84 million people (39%) were deprived of basic handwashing facilities in the country in 2022.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), half of the world’s population still does not have adequate access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) which could have prevented at least 1.4 million deaths and 74 million disability-adjusted life years in 2019.

“It’s clear that inadequate access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services continues to pose a significant and preventable health risk, particularly to the most vulnerable populations,” said Bruce Gordon, head of WHO Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Unit.

The WHO said governments and their supporting partners have committed to providing universal access to safe WASH by 2030 and to substantially reducing the number of associated deaths and illnesses. These commitments are enshrined in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets 3.9, 6.1 and 6.2.

Experts said a downward fluctuation in the ADP allocation for the WASH sector of Bangladesh was observed in FY2023-24 which was almost one-fourth of the allocation in FY2022-23 despite an 11.8% rise in the size of the ADP in FY2023-24 (Tk2.63 trillion) compared to the revised ADP of FY2022-23.

They said the country needs an adequate amount of allocation in its national budget to ensure water, sanitation and hygiene and attain the SDGs.

At the same time, a separate administrative structure is also needed with a separate budgetary allocation to ensure fresh water and proper sanitation and hygiene for the people, the experts suggested.

“The budgetary allocation should be increased for the WASH sector in our country to ensure the proper share of water, sanitation and hygiene which is very important for public health and productivity in a bid to attain the SDGs,” Prof Dr Mohammed Shadrul Alam, general secretary of Bangladesh Health Economist Forum, told the Daily Sun.

Mohammad Zobair Hasan, Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) CSO Steering Committee representative - South Asia, said the current budgetary allocation for WASH is fragmented.

He said the budgetary allocation for the sector is made through different ministries and departments of the government. “That’s why it’s difficult to get expected benefits from such fragmented budgetary allocation.”

According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2022 of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 19.34% of households use supply water as a main source of drinking water, 76.81% use tube-well and 3.85% of households use other sources of water such as ponds, rivers, canals and wells as a main source of drinking water. On the other hand, 92.32% of households report that they have access to improved toilet facilities, 6.99% have access to unimproved toilet facilities and 0.69% of households openly defecate and do not have any toilet facilities.