Water safety plan: a commitment towards safe and sustainable water supplies

WaterAid Bangladesh (WAB) works in hard to reach difficult areas and promotes context specific, appropriate safe water supply options through its Partner NGOs. It is felt that community involvement is vital to maintain the quality of water–safe and to make these interventions sustainable. Water Safety Plan (WSP) approach involves community to actively participate in risk assessment and risk management activities by identifying potential risks for contamination of waterpoints, ensuring better operation & maintenance towards keeping water safe and handling water safely. WaterAid Bangladesh piloted WSP successfully and then scaled up in entire working areas. WAB has also built the capacity of staff, community and Local Government Institutions to execute their roles towards safe & sustainable water supply and improved hygienic behaviours. WAB addressed about half a million waterpoints out of ten million in the country by reaching almost 6 million beneficiaries

Mainstreaming menstrual hygiene management: lessons from a decade of programme and policy work

Proper menstrual hygiene management is integral to the dignity and health of women and girls. However, it is a neglected issue both in the WASH and health sectors, leading to a crisis of knowledge, facilities and hygienic practice. This briefing paper describes the initiatives taken by the Bangladesh country programme of the international non-governmental organisation WaterAid. As one of the pioneers of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in Bangladesh, WaterAid’s experiences hold important lessons for those currently working on the issue, and looking to take it forward to make sustainable impact

Inclusive sanitation: breaking down barriers

During implementation of WaterAid Bangladesh’s current project it became evident that certain populations were unintentionally being excluded – people with disabilities were one of these groups. Social stigmas and access difficulties meant that they were not present in CBOs or hygiene promotional sessions and excluded from decision making activities, resulting in continued open defecation and other unhygienic behaviours. The linkages between poverty and disability are strong, with disability being both the cause and effect of poverty. Without specific activities to address the requirements of people with disabilities the cycle of poverty remains, further exacerbated by continued exclusion from services such as health care, education and water and sanitation. This paper concentrates on the barriers faced by people with disabilities in accessing water and sanitation services and explains how through WaterAid Bangladesh’s recent initiative, a greater understanding on breaking these barriers is strengthening the future interventions

Safe distances between groundwater-based water wells and pit latrines at different hydrogeological conditions in the Ganges Atrai floodplains of Bangladesh.

BACKGROUND: Groundwater drawn from shallow tubewells in Bangladesh is often polluted by nearby pit latrines, which are commonly used toilets in rural and sub-urban areas of the country. METHODS: To determine the minimum safe distance of a tubewell from a pit latrine in different hydrogeological conditions of Bangladesh, 20 monitoring wells were installed at three study sites (Manda, Mohanpur and Bagmara) with the vertical and horizontal distances ranging from 18-47 to 2-15 m, respectively. Water samples were collected three times in three seasons and tested for faecal coliforms (FC) and faecal streptococci (FS) as indicators of contamination. Soil samples were analysed for texture, bulk density and hydraulic conductivity following standard procedures. Sediment samples were collected to prepare lithological logs. RESULTS: When the shallow aquifers at one of the three sites (Mohanpur) were overlained by 18-23-m-thick aquitards, the groundwater of the monitoring wells was found contaminated with a lateral and vertical distances of 2 and 31 m, respectively. However, where the aquitard was only 9 m thick, contamination was found up to lateral and vertical distances of 4.5 and 40.5 m, respectively. The soil textures of all the sites were mainly composed of loam and sandy loam. The hydraulic conductivities in the first aquifer at Manda, Mohanpur and Bagmara were 5.2-7.3, 8.2 and 1.4-15.7 m/h, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the safe distance from the tubewell to the pit latrine varied from site to site depending on the horizontal and vertical distances of the tubewell as well as hydrogeological conditions of a particular area

Safe distances between groundwater-based water wells and pit latrines at different hydrogeological conditions in the Ganges Atrai floodplains of Bangladesh

Background: Groundwater drawn from shallow tubewells in Bangladesh is often polluted by nearby pit latrines, which are commonly used toilets in rural and sub-urban areas of the country. Methods: To determine the minimum safe distance of a tubewell from a pit latrine in different hydrogeological conditions of Bangladesh, 20 monitoring wells were installed at three study sites (Manda, Mohanpur and Bagmara) with the vertical and horizontal distances ranging from 18\u201347 to 2\u201315 m, respectively. Water samples were collected three times in three seasons and tested for faecal coliforms (FC) and faecal streptococci (FS) as indicators of contamination. Soil samples were analysed for texture, bulk density and hydraulic conductivity following standard procedures. Sediment samples were collected to prepare lithological logs. Results: When the shallow aquifers at one of the three sites (Mohanpur) were overlained by 18\u201323-m-thick aquitards, the groundwater of the monitoring wells was found contaminated with a lateral and vertical distances of 2 and 31 m, respectively. However, where the aquitard was only 9 m thick, contamination was found up to lateral and vertical distances of 4.5 and 40.5 m, respectively. The soil textures of all the sites were mainly composed of loam and sandy loam. The hydraulic conductivities in the first aquifer at Manda, Mohanpur and Bagmara were 5.2\u20137.3, 8.2 and 1.4\u201315.7 m/h, respectively. Conclusions: The results showed that the safe distance from the tubewell to the pit latrine varied from site to site depending on the horizontal and vertical distances of the tubewell as well as hydrogeological conditions of a particular area

Wastewater-based epidemiological surveillance to monitor the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in developing countries with onsite sanitation facilities

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has emerged as a valuable approach for forecasting disease outbreaks in developed countries with a centralized sewage infrastructure. On the other hand, due to the absence of well-defined and systematic sewage networks, WBE is challenging to implement in developing countries like Bangladesh where most people live in rural areas. Identification of appropriate locations for rural Hotspot Based Sampling (HBS) and urban Drain Based Sampling (DBS) are critical to enable WBE based monitoring system. We investigated the best sampling locations from both urban and rural areas in Bangladesh after evaluating the sanitation infrastructure for forecasting COVID-19 prevalence. A total of 168 wastewater samples were collected from 14 districts of Bangladesh during each of the two peak pandemic seasons. RT-qPCR commercial kits were used to target ORF1ab and N genes. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 genetic materials was found in 98% (165/168) and 95% (160/168) wastewater samples in the first and second round sampling, respectively. Although wastewater effluents from both the marketplace and isolation center drains were found with the highest amount of genetic materials according to the mixed model, quantifiable SARS-CoV-2 RNAs were also identified in the other four sampling sites. Hence, wastewater samples of the marketplace in rural areas and isolation centers in urban areas can be considered the appropriate sampling sites to detect contagion hotspots. This is the first complete study to detect SARS-CoV-2 genetic components in wastewater samples collected from rural and urban areas for monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. The results based on the study revealed a correlation between viral copy numbers in wastewater samples and SARS-CoV-2 positive cases reported by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) as part of the national surveillance program for COVID-19 prevention. The findings of this study will help in setting strategies and guidelines for the selection of appropriate sampling sites, which will facilitate in development of comprehensive wastewater-based epidemiological systems for surveillance of rural and urban areas of low-income countries with inadequate sewage infrastructure.This research was supported by Water Aid Bangladesh, North South University, Dhaka, COVID-19 Diagnostic Lab, Department of Microbiology, Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU), Noakhali, Bangladesh, the International Training Network of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (ITN-BUET) - Centre for Water Supply and Waste Management, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. We acknowledge the sincere help and support of the staff and volunteers of NSTU-COVID-19 Diagnostic Lab, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Bangladesh during the different phases of the study. PB and MTI acknowledge the Life Science Technology Platform, Science for Life Laboratory for the seed funding to initiate the wastewater-based epidemiological studies for SARS-CoV-2 in Bangladesh. We would also like to acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers for their critical comments as well as their thoughtful insights, which has significantly improved the manuscript.Peer reviewe

Economic and social emancipation of slum women

The paper attempts to describe some focussed initiative of a government agency, the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) to enhance and improve the quality of life of slum women in its urban development projects. The concept described herein has been developed following a study entitled “The Urban Poor in Bangladesh” by Centre for Urban Studies, University of Dhaka in 1979. Following this, the government in four major cities undertook a project named Urban Community Development Project (1982-85) with UNICEF assistance. This concept of community based activities for the urban poor included organising the communities in groups, provision of income generation loans for women, installation of tubewells and sanitary latrines, and construction of drains. This was further expanded and developed in Slum Improvement Project (SIP) implemented during 1989-1996. Initially Ministry of Social Welfare and later LGED from 1987 became the implementing agency for the SIP covering 85 slum settlements in 4 city corporations and 16 district towns. The project was a success as it provided basic physical infrastructure to the most neglected part of the city and made provision of economic activities by organising and training the urban dwellers especially women. Encouraged by the sustainability of its components, LGED now included this concept of slum activities in all of its urban projects covering 419 slums and over 65,000 families in 40 municipalities and 4 city corporations. The authors being intimately involved in the urban sector projects try to describe the activities concerning the slum women for their economic and social emancipation

Changes in the menstrual hygiene management facilities and usage among Bangladeshi school girls and its effect on school absenteeism from 2014 to 2018

Background The lack of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) information and facilities in schools is a major contributor to adolescent girls’ school absenteeism in low- and middle-income countries like Bangladesh. Objectives This paper examines the changes over time in school MHM facilities, knowledge and perceptions among adolescent girls, in relation to school absenteeism between 2014 and 2018 in Bangladesh. Methods We examined changes in MHM and school absenteeism among schoolgirls using nationally representative data from the Bangladesh National Hygiene Baseline Survey 2014 and National Hygiene Survey 2018. Given the repetitive nature of our data and its clustering within participants, our method included performing descriptive analysis, bivariate analysis, and multivariate Generalised Estimating Equation (GEE) modelling to analyse these changes. Results Results showed that adolescent girls’ menstruation-related absenteeism decreased between 2014 and 2018. Percentage of adolescents who missed school decreased from 25% to 14% (PD: −11; CI: −16 to −6.1), while the average number of missed days reduced from 2.8 to 2.5 (PD: −0.33; CI: −0.57 to −0.10). In the GEE model, we found that living in rural areas (coef: −5.6; CI: −10.06 to −1.14), parental restrictions on going outside (coef: 4.47; CI: 0.75 to 8.2), education levels of girls (coef: −9.48; CI: −14.17 to −4.79), girl’s belief that menstruation affects school performance (coef: 23.32; CI: 19.71 to 26.93), and using old cloths (coef: −4.2; CI: −7.6 to −0.79) were significantly associated with higher absenteeism. However, participant’s age, type of school, knowledge of menstruation before menarche, receiving information regarding MHM, separate place for changing absorbents, and separate latrine and urine facility were not significantly associated with the changes in absenteeism over time. Conclusion This paper emphasised the associations between changes in school absenteeism, parental restrictions on students, students’ education levels, and menstruation-related misperceptions. Ongoing research, policy reviews, and targeted interventions to improve MHM perceptions among girls are required to provide long-term benefits for adolescent girls in Bangladesh