Sanitation means the safe management of human excreta, including
environmental cleanliness, hand washing, garbage removal and wastewater
disposal. Proper sanitation is the basis of a healthy environment.
Lack of sanitation facilities forces people to discharge excreta
in open places. Pollutants from excreta contaminate the water of
streams, rivers, lakes and underground aquifers. Lack of hygiene,
especially failure to wash hands after defecation, leads to disease
transmission. Every year, 1.5 million children under five die from
diarrhoea. Without proper sanitation, a sustainable environment
is not possible.
Target C of the Seventh Millennium Development Goal is "Halve, by
2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe
drinking-water and basic sanitation." The world is not on track
to meet this MDG sanitation target. To raise awareness and to accelerate
sanitation progress, the UN General Assembly declared the year 2008
the International Year of Sanitation. According to the report of
International Year of Sanitation, around the world, 2.6 billion
people do not have a clean and safe place to use for performing
their bodily functions. Based on 1990-2004 trends, it is projected
that in 2015, 692 million urban and 1698 million rural people will
still be unserved. The United Nations, in their MDG report 2008,
stated that in Southern Asia, 33% people are using improved sanitation
facilities while the MDG target is 61% for this region. Therefore,
they labeled this region as very low coverage in sanitation.
Bangladesh is in the zone of very low coverage stage in sanitation.
Bangladesh is the 9th most densely populated country in the world.
According to Joint Monitoring Programme by WHO and UNICEF in 2006,
51% of urban areas had improved sanitation facilities and only 7%
urban areas had sewerage connection. In addition, only 32% of the
rural population was using improved sanitation in 2006.
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is the most densely populated
city in the world. Almost one third of the total urban population
lives in Dhaka city. However, only 20% of the households in the
Dhaka city are connected to conventional sewerage systems. There
is only one sewage treatment plant in Dhaka city with a capacity
of 120,000m3 per day. Collected wastewater with existing sewage
connection is three times higher than its capacity. Therefore, the
plant bypasses most of the sewage and discharges directly into the
river. Moreover, sewerage connections in some areas collapse due
to poor maintenance. As a result, sewerage overflows are regular
scenes in Dhaka city during the rainy season. This is the best scenery
of sanitation system in Bangladesh. The rest, 80% of households,
use septic tanks, pit latrines, unhygienic latrines or open defecation.
Many high-rise buildings also discharge their excreta into nearby
water systems. Industries also discharge effluent directly to the
river without any treatment. The result of the poor sanitation system
in Dhaka city is the present condition of the Buriganga River, which
is no longer a river at all.
Rural people make up the majority of our country, 75% of the population
lives in rural areas without any sewerage facilities. Only 16% of
the rural people uses sanitary latrines and another 22% uses so-called
home-made pit latrines. The rest practice open defecation. As flooding
is a regularly occurring phenomena in our country, all the waste
ends up in the rivers or lakes. Because of this, rural people suffers
from water-related diseases and the bio-diversity of our nature
is decreasing day by day.
Almost all the pollutants from human excreta ultimately end up in
the environment. This is a great threat for our environment. We
should keep in mind that nature has a limited carrying capacity.
If nature receives more pollutants than its capacity then natural
sustainability will collapse. Proper wastewater management is very
urgent for a better environment and economy. The Government should
take proper initiatives to make people aware about the impact of
improper sanitation on the environment and should make some emergency
programme to achieve the Millennium Development Sanitation Goal.
Otherwise Buriganga will be the future of all the rivers in our
country.
(Md. Saif Uddin is an MSc. student of Sanitary Engineering, UNESCO-IHE,
Delft, The Netherlands.)
Opinion: Sanitation deserves highest priority
