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Access to adequate and equitable sanitation
and hygiene for all
Dr. Mohammad Akramul Islam, Director, Communicable Diseases, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH),
Disaster Management and Climate Change (DMCC), BRAC
B
y helping over 41 million people to gain access to
hygienic latrines and 2.3 million people gain access
to safe water across 250 sub-districts, BRAC’s Water,
Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme has made an
outstanding contribution to continuing efforts to improve sani-
tation and hygiene in rural Bangladesh for the past decade.
BRAC WASH has also helped to bring about a social transfor-
mation in the rural areas under its mandate, with significant
progress on sanitation particularly for the poorest families.
Success has been achieved over a nine year period not only
in the provision of hygienic household latrines, but in their
use by all members of the family, as well as in good hygiene
practices such as handwashing.
To increase access to safe water, BRAC has established water
safety plans, installed deep tube wells, tested water quality
and provided loans for tube well platform construction
which protects water sources from contamination. Arsenic
and saline-prone areas are prioritised where alternative water
technologies, such as arsenic removal filters, iron removal
plants, pond sand filters and piped water supply systems are
implemented in schools and communities.
BRAC also provides technical assistance to those who can
afford and are willing to construct latrines, ensuring proper
design and site selection. Loans are provided to those who
cannot afford to pay the full cost of hygienic latrines. Two-pit
latrine construction materials, including superstructures
and mini water tanks, are offered to ultra poor families free
of cost.
BRAC has used its experience from previous large scale
programmes to analyse what it understood to be underly-
ing obstacles to progress in the WASH sector. This includes
a lack of community participation in decision-making
on WASH services; insufficient attention paid to people’s
behaviours; lack of financial means for the poorest; lack of
institutional recognition of the need to address and trans-
form existing gender inequality and power relations; and a
lack of active involvement of women in planning, implement-
ing, and managing water and sanitation facilities.
In most BRAC WASH programme areas, critical mass
has been achieved and open defecation has become a social
taboo. The significant role played by women has changed
communities. When the programme began in 2006, it was
highly uncommon for men and women in a rural setting to
convene and make decisions together. Now, village WASH
committees (VWCs) have a balanced gender membership
with an active core of women who are accustomed to speak-
ing out and playing a full role in community decisions.
In 2007, BRAC adopted a policy to help realise gender
equality in its programmes and organisation. The goals are
to serve the needs of women and men and help eliminate all
forms of discrimination against women. In the same year,
BRAC developed its operational guidelines on addressing
gender and equity in WASH.
A gender-inclusive approach to WASH implementation is
based on the understanding that, for it to succeed, everyone
in a community must play a positive role. Women play a
critical role in household decisions on water, sanitation and
Schoolboys’ and girls’ latrines constructed with technical assistance and advice on proper design and site selection from the BRAC WASH programme
Image: BRAC WASH
Image: BRAC WASH