Promoting sanitation in Bangladesh

The use of sanitary latrines in a rural area in Bangladesh was found to have increased substantially (73 per cent compared to the national average of 26 per cent) following a sanitation promotion campaign involving school children and the local government administration. These findings were based on a survey of 210 households conducted in 30 villages of Banaripara in Barisal district. Banaripara is one of the areas where the Bangladesh Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), with the assistance of Unicef, launched an integrated sanitation programme in 1990. The programme involved the promotion and construction of two types of latrines: one with a cement squatting slab and a 'home-made' latrine constructed with locally available materials. Poorer families appeared to be more responsive to the idea of building their own sanitary latrines than those who were slightly better off and who sometimes saw the 'home-made' latrine as a symbol of low status. Although the involvement of school children played a large role in the success of the sanitation campaign, the three schools that were visited were found to have inadequate sanitary facilities. Another negative aspect of the campaign was the lack of involvement of women, who nevertheless sometimes built their own latrines because their husbands were busy at work.