Subsidy Or Self-respect?: Participatory Total Community Sanitation in BangladeshAccess to latrines in rural areas of Bangladesh is less than 15 per cent. Many international agencies and non-governmental organisations have been working to improve environmental sanitation by constructing latrines and toilets with subsidies provided at different rates. But even after three decades of such efforts it is difficult to find 100 villages form amongst nearly 85, 000 that are totally sanitised and free from open defecation. Success has generally been measured on the basis of the number of latrines constructed within a given period of time instead of the extend of open defecation, which in most cases has been continued unabated. A new approach being pioneered by the author (Dr Kamal Kar, Social and Participatory Development Consultant from Calcutta, India) with Village Education Resource Centre (VERC), Water Aid in Bangladesh and other agencies concentrates on empowering local people to analyse the extent and risk of environmental pollution caused by open defecation, and to construct toilets without any external subsidies. This community-led effort has had a huge impact. Open defecation has been completely stopped by the community in more than 400 villages in Bangladesh, and the methodology is now being adopted in parts of India and elsewhere in Asia and Africa. |
Common terms and phrases
6ft deep pit agencies approach areas available within locality Bagmara Bamboo Calculated Cambodia Chittagong district collapse with heavy community catalysts Community innovated model community led total Community Sanitation Engineer concrete rings construct toilets Cost is low Dhaka diarrhoea districts of Bangladesh drops and rebounds empower environmental sanitation facilitators goes up Longevity groups Homemade latrine households human excreta hygiene India initiated institutions Kamal Kar Kibale district latrine construction latrine models led total sanitation low compared low cost Maharashtra Materials are available Materials without Superstructure Mochmoil Nanded districts NGOs offset pit organisations participation participatory Participatory Rural Appraisal pit latrine pit may collapse Plastic Pan possibility of collapse Pursat Rajshahi district realisation rebounds water replacement if land Sanitation Engineer sanitation programme stop open defecation subsidy Teknaf transect walks Upazila VERC VERC's water and sanitation water can flush water in monsoons water level goes WaterAid WaterAid-B WATSAN committees WSP-SA Zambia