A three-day South Asian Conference on Sanitation, better known as SASOCAN, began in the Nepalese capital on Tuesday with Bangladesh getting praised for its success in reducing open defecation.
The 5th ministerial level SASOCAN drew politicians, government officials, civil society representatives and grassroots people from the region besides experts from the rest of the world.
The national delegations are mostly led by ministers as the participants seek to develop a strategy for making a definite headway in water, sanitation and hygiene in short WASH in South Asia.
Since its inception in 2003, the SACOSAN became a common platform for the Saarc nations to discuss problems and explore solutions to achieve complete sanitation status.
Inaugurating the conference at a city hotel vice-president of Nepal Paramanda Jha called for greater cooperation among the South Asian countries for abolishing open defecation, which remains a big challenge to all the nations in the region.
SASOCAN was created with the objective of ‘Sanitation for All: All for Sanitation.’
‘Together we can make sure that our people have access to improved sanitation and can enjoy better life, Paramanda said adding, ‘Sanitation is dignity and a societal value.’
Local government secretary Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan is leading a 68-member delegation from Bangladesh, which includes government officials and NGO representatives.
London-based international NGO Water Aid’s deputy chief executive director Girish Menon told the conference that Bangladesh reduced open defecation from 40 per cent to four per cent in the last decade.
‘It is a tremendous progress,’ he said.
He, however, identified the country’s urban slums and hard-to-reach areas in the coastal belt and hill districts were the major challenges for Bangladesh in addressing the sanitation issue.
He said that four per cent of the population constitutes a big number for densely populated Bangladesh.
He, however, told New Age that the sanitation crisis in India was still high with only 40 per cent of its population using safe latrines.
‘Around 40 per cent of the people in India still defecate in the open,’ he said.
For Bangladesh, Girish suggested city-wise planning was important for addressing the issue as more and more people were coming to urban centres contributing to increasing informal settlements in Dhaka and other cities.
Shahid Khan said Bangladesh achieved around 96 per cent sanitation coverage with its improved and shared latrines.
‘We are very much on the track in meeting the Millennium Development Goals in terms of sanitation coverage. Hard-to-reach areas and urban slums are the major challenges for us,’ the local government secretary told New Age.
Bangladesh will have to ensure 100 per cent access to improved sanitation to all its citizens for achieving the MDG by 2015, h said.
As of now, 56 per cent of the country’s population use improved latrines, according to the Bangladesh country paper presented in the conference.
On Monday, the fifth inter-ministerial SACOSAN kicked off at Bhatapur with Nepalese president Ram Baran Yadav declaring the historic city the first Open Defecation Free district in the Kathmanu Valley.
Bhaktapur is a world heritage site, about 30 km from Kathmandu.
Dhaka hosted the first SACOSAN in 2003.
The Ministry of Urban Development of the Nepal government is hosting the SACOSAN.
Over 400 delegates and WASH activists from eight Saarc nations –Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and the Maldives are attending.
-With New Age input
