The sanitation movement in Bangladesh and the role of private sector

Over the last two decades Bangladesh has made considerable improvements in rural sanitation. Between 1981 and 1992, sanitary latrine coverage increased from 1% to 33% and between 1992 and 2003, it increased from 33% to 48%. This is a result of the sanitation movement that has been conducted by national and international NGOs, donor agencies, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) and the private sector. Bangladesh has not yet reached the point where the private sector alone can fulfil the task of improving the sanitation situation for rural people. Complimentary roles by all four sectors including the Government, NGOs, the private sector and donors are needed. Field findings indicate that the presence of private latrine producers ensures tremendous improvements in latrine coverage in a village that has experienced an NGO’s WatSan intervention however, in a non-intervention village, the private sector contributes to an increase in latrine coverage only to a certain, somewhat less, level of improvement. In an NGO-intervention village, hygienic maintenance of latrine hardware is much higher than in a non-intervention village. Moreover, people of the NGO-intervention villages visited are much more aware on the importance of sanitation than those in the non-intervention villages. Also, it was observed that in the villages with NGO interventions the hardcore poor even installed latrines with credit support from the local NGO. This was not found in non-intervention villages. [authors abstract]