BRAC’s sanitation program: a case study

Abstract

Bangladesh has made significant progress in the field of sanitation. Bangladesh Government and some NGOs are working to fulfill the targets set for sanitation in the Millennium Development Goals and the more ambitious national goals that seek to achieve 100% sanitation by 2010.In the sanitation arena BRAC’s WASH program is a unique one. BRAC’s WASH was first launched in 2006 with support from Netherlands in 152 Upazilas (sub-districts). BRAC has currently provided access to hygienic latrines for 41.6 million people, safe water options for 2.3 million people, and hygiene education to an estimated 13.9 million people per year in communities and 2.9 million people per year in schools on average. On the other hand, as a Government institution, DPHE under Local Government Division exclusively responsible for sanitation and water supply in mainly Upazila and Zila level. There are many local government bodies like Upazila Parishad, Union Parishad and NGOs such as BRAC are trying to achieve 100 % sanitation coverage. Local DPHE office, UNO office and NGOs like BRAC are operating in the Upazila area specifically. To get the expected success coordination is very important among those bodies. My research work is an empirical study of WASH program in Bholahat Upazila, Chapainawabganj district. The objective of this thesis is to find out whether the WASH program is successfully helping the local residents of the Upazila to improve their health conditions or not. And how the coordination and collaboration of the local administration and NGOs are working in the sanitation sector to achieve success, I tried to find out that in my thesis. From twenty one respondents, 100 percent are satisfied about the coordination and collaboration of BRAC’s WASH with the local administrative bodies. As per the respondents, 28.58 percent are satisfied and 71.42 percent marked as good without any bad opinion on the program activities. Four case studies have been done to get a clear picture of the scenario of sanitation in the selected area. Eventually, some recommendations and further scope of studies have been given in the last chapter that would be helpful for the proper authority, policy makers and upcoming researchers concerned with water, sanitation and hygiene sector.