Sanitation Condition of Low-Income Areas in Sylhet City and Ways to Its Improvement

The sanitation condition of low-income areas of Sylhet, the northeastern divisional city of Bangladesh, is remarkably poor. The major objectives of the study were to assess the sanitation conditions of the low-income areas of the city as well as to find out the ways to improve the situation. Five different slums were selected from different wards depending upon the severity of existing sanitation conditions. Necessary information was collected by questionnaire survey and visual inspection from the selected slums. Several motivational programmes were conducted for building up their awareness about health and sanitation. Depending upon the availability of land, willingness of landowners, number of users and land topography various types of low-cost sanitary units were installed with the active participation of the inhabitants. Regular monitoring was performed to observe the behavioural and other changes of the communities. The appropriateness of provided types of latrines was also evaluated. Before undertaking the research work, only 14.5% of the targeted dwellers were observed using sanitary latrines. Now this figure has been sharply increased to almost 78%. Besides, active participation of the beneficiaries at different stages of the programme made them responsible for using and maintaining the toilets.