Speakers at a programme on Wednesday emphasised the need to allocate equitable resources to ensure safe water and hygienic sanitation for people living in hard-to-reach areas of the country. They were addressing a project launching ceremony on “Enhancing governance and capacity of serve providers and civil society in water supply and sanitation” at the Conference Hall of the NGO Forum for Public Health.
The speakers said the last seven years’ budget shows that 70 per cent of the ADP allocation goes to urban areas. They pointed out that per capita water and sanitation allocation for Dhaka city dwellers is Tk. 900, compared to only Tk. 11 for people living in chars, Tk. 22 for those living in the CHT region and Tk. 200 for those living in coastal areas.
They said poor coverage of the UNDP-sponsored WaSH in hard-to-reach areas can be attributed to lack of accountability, people’s participation, people’s awareness of WaSH entitlements, and skills and coordination between LGI and civil society, among other reasons.
The NGO Forum for Public Health launched a governance-focused project with the support of the European Union (EU), reaching out to two lakh poor households in climate vulnerable and hard-to-reach areas and ensuring their right to safe water and sanitation.
William Hanna, Ambassador and head of the European Union, addressed the function as chief guest. He emphasised the need to ensure drinking water and hygienic sanitation for all to establish good governance. He said the demand for basic sanitation services and safe water is increasing, reflecting the needs of a growing population in hard-to-reach areas.
“The EU development policy promotes an integrated framework for water resources management, drawing on the European experience,” he added.
Hanna mentioned that the prime focus of the European Union’s future priority areas of cooperation for Bangladesh is “governance”, which is strongly addressed through this project. He said the project’s objective is to reach all required resources and services to the people living in rural hard-to-reach areas. He also said that the European Union looks forward to aligning international agendas with government and non-government steps and local demands.
He expressed optimism that the project would help implement good governance and social accountability in village level institutions, local government institutions, service providers and other stakeholding entities in the water and sanitation sector, in order to benefit public health.
The project will work to improve skills and coordination of local government institutions (LGIs) and civil society for better transparency and accountability in 59 hard-to-reach unions of 27 upazilas under 25 districts.
Presided over by Taherunnesa Abdullah, chairperson of the NGO Forum, the function was also addressed, among others, by Nurul Islam Khan, additional chief engineer of DPHE, Md Abu Taher Khan, managing director of the NGO Foundation of Bangladesh, Dr Md Khairul Islam, country representative of the WaterAid in Bangladesh.
Nurul Islam Khan stressed the need to make functional the Union Parishad’s WatSan-related committees. He said the project would help devise a working mechanism in this regard.
Md Abu Taher Khan mentioned that they have been funding 255 NGOs, out of 1,047, for promoting WaSH, which indicates the rising relevance of the water and sanitation sector He recommended that local government institutions be strengthened to meet the rising demands of the rural sector.
Dr Md Khairul Islam mentioned that about 70 per cent of the resource allocation under the ADP goes to urban areas, of which Dhaka gets the major portion. He termed this is as gross inequality that should be addressed immediately.
Taherunnesa Abdullah said the government would never be able to achieve water and sanitation without bringing the hard-to-reach people under the WaSH coverage.
SMA. Rashid, executive director of the NGO Forum, delivered the welcome address. He described the project as a timely support to six hard-to-reach ecological zones (coastal, drought-prone, char, haor, flood-prone & hilly areas) in the present context as it seeks to promote good governance in the water and sanitation sector.
-With The Independent input
