The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

LGRD and Cooperative Adviser Mohammad Anwarul Iqbal yesterday said the country has so far achieved 85 percent sanitation coverage, which was only 33 percent in 2003.

"Realising the importance of sanitation for sustainable development and poverty reduction, the government has put special emphasis on achieving its target of 100 percent sanitation by 2010" he said while inaugurating an exposition on water and sanitation at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Centre here.

Water Aid Bangladesh (WAB), an international NGO, organised the two-day exposition titled 'WatSan Expo 2008' to mark the United Nations International Year of Sanitation 2008.

Deputy Country Representative of DFID Sarah Sanyahunbi spoke as the special guest while WAB Acting Country Representative M Azahar Ali gave welcome speech and Programme Director Hasin Jahan gave vote of thanks at the inaugural session.

A total of 30 organisations, working for ensuring safe water supply and sanitation across the country, are participating in the exposition.

The adviser underlined the need for making sustainable achievement on sanitation coverage by continuing the mass awareness programme and strengthening the monitoring system.

We need to identify the areas where we are still lagging behind and pockets of unreachable regions to make our efforts sustainable as well as to achieve 100 percent sanitation by 2010, he said.

Anwarul said dependency on ground surface water need to be reduced as excess use of shallow hand pumps is heightening the risk of arsenic contamination putting nearly 20 million at risk.

He said the country had achieved 97 percent coverage of water supply during the past decades, but due to contamination of arsenic in the water the coverage has declined to 76 percent.

The adviser said the government has a plan to bring water from the Jamuna river by pipeline for ensuring safe water supply to the Dhaka city dwellers.

Deputy head of DFID Sara Sanyahunbi said they believe that they have a duty to provide safe water and sanitation to all people of Bangladesh as a development partner and in line with that the DFID has already provided US $ 100 million for the improvement of water sector.

Only setting up of latrines would not be considered as full sanitation coverage, good practice of hygiene also need to be ensured for sustaining the effort, she said.

Azahar said the exposition would create mass awareness about drinking safe water and using of sanitation. The mass awareness and interaction among the organisations working in public health sector will help the government achieve 100 percent sanitation coverage by 2010, he said.

At the fair, the participating organisations would demonstrate current approaches and technologies, which have been practicing in the country for helping the poor and the most vulnerable communities to gain access to basic water and sanitation service, he said.

Three seminars on 'sustainable of water supply and sanitation programme', 'technology in water supply and sanitation' and 'Poverty, Equity and Gender in WatSan' will be held on the sidelines of the exposition, he said.

Later, a colourful rally led by the adviser was brought out from the venue.