WASH Proposal

8/12/2019 WASH Proposal

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BRAC Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

Programme

Attaining the MDG Targets on Water and Sanitation

in Bangladesh

BRAC Centre 75 Mohakhali


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Programme data sheet

Title: BRACs Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Programme. Attaining the MDG 2015 Target on

Water and Sanitation in Bangladesh

Location: 150 rural Upazilas in Bangladesh

Duration: The programme will be implemented over a period of 5 years, i.e. January 2006 -

December 2010

Sector/Sub-sector: The programme will target the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene sectors in

rural Bangladesh

Budget: 58.73 million

Requested contribution Netherlands Government: 52.96 million

Other Contributions: 3.87 million (BRAC) and 1.89 million (local communities)

Impacts: Additional sustainable sanitation coverage for 17.6 million people, hygiene education

for 37.5 million people, and additional water coverage for 8.5 million people.

Implementing Organisation: BRAC

Contact Persons: Md. Aminul Alam, Deputy Executive Director, BRAC

E-mail: [email protected]

Faruque Ahmed, Director, BHP

E-mail: [email protected]


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Table of Contents

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... 3

Abbreviations........................................................................................................................... 5

Execut ive summary ................................................................................................................. 7

1 Introduct ion..................................................................................................................... 13

2 The con text : Bangladesh and its institutions ............................................................. 14

2.1 Socio-economic and development context ............................................................ 142.2 Water and sanitation context in Bangladesh......................................................... 14

2.3 Sector policies ........................................................................................................ 15

2.4 Institutions and projects in the sector..................................................................... 17

2.4.1 Government of Bangladesh ............................................................................... 17

2.4.2 Non-Governmental Organizations ..................................................................... 18

3 BRAC in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sectors........................................................ 20

4 Programme objectives ................................................................................................... 244.1 Programme Goal .................................................................................................... 24

4.2 Specific Objectives ................................................................................................. 24

5 Overall programme concepts and strategies .............................................................. 26

5.1 Hygiene and behavioural change........................................................................... 27

5.2 WASH: integration of hygiene, sanitation, and water............................................. 30

5.2.1 Sanitation ........................................................................................................... 31

5.2.2 Water.................................................................................................................. 335.3 Gender ................................................................................................................... 37

5.4 Reaching the poor .................................................................................................. 38

5.4.1 Target Upazilas and their selection ................................................................... 39

5.4.2 Programme strategies........................................................................................ 39

5.4.3 Cost Recovery, subsidies, cross-subsidies, revolving funds............................. 41

5.4.4 Revolving Funds at the Upazila Level ............................................................... 42

5.5 Sustainability .......................................................................................................... 43

5.6 Collaboration and participation............................................................................... 45

5.7 Learning and Capacity Building for Scaling-Up ..................................................... 46

6 Outputs and Activit ies ................................................................................................... 49

6.1 Activities ................................................................................................................. 50

7 P Pl i 53


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10.4 Procurement........................................................................................................... 67

10.5 Asset and Inventory Management ......................................................................... 67

10.6 Human Resources Department.............................................................................. 6810.7 BRAC Ombudsperson............................................................................................ 68

10.8 External Audits ....................................................................................................... 69

11 Review and Evaluation ............................................................................................... 70

11.1 Baseline Surveys.................................................................................................... 70

11.2 Internal Quality Control........................................................................................... 70

11.3 External Review and Evaluation ............................................................................ 71

12 Assumptions and Risks ............................................................................................. 7312.1 Assumptions........................................................................................................... 73

12.2 Risks Analysis ........................................................................................................ 74

Annex A Organogram ..................................................................................................... 76

Annex B Table of Authori ty for Financial Transactions .............................................. 77

Annex C Logical Framework Analysis .......................................................................... 78

Output:.............................................................................................................................. 79Activities: .......................................................................................................................... 79

12.2.1................................................................................................................................ 80

Annex D Poverty Map of Bangladesh ............................................................................ 85

Annex E Village Micro-Cycle .......................................................................................... 87


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Abbreviations

ADP Annual Development Programme

Adolescent Development Programme

BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics

BCC Behaviour Change Communication

BDP BRAC Development Programme

BEP BRAC Education Programme

BHP BRAC Health Programme

BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (formerly known as)BWDB Bangladesh Water Development Board

CBO Community Based Organization

CSO Civil Society Organization

DANIDA Danish International Development Agency

DMW/DGIS Directoraat Mileu and Water/Directoraat Generaal Internationale

Samenwerking

DPHE Department of Public Health Engineering

DTW Deep Tube wellGDP Gross Domestic Product

GoB Government of Bangladesh

IEC Information Education and Communication

IRC IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

IWRM Integrated Water Resource Management

JMP Joint Monitoring Project

KAP Knowledge Attitude and Practice

LGD Local Government Division

LGED Local Government Engineering Department

LGI Local Government Institution

MDG Millennium Development Goal

MoLGRDC Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives

MOU Memorandum of Understanding

NGO Non Government Organization

NPWSS National Policy for Safe Water Supply and Sanitation

NWMP National Water Management Plan

O&M Operation and ManagementPPCP Public Private and Community Partnership

PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal

PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

PSF Pond Sand Filter

RED Research and Evaluation Division


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VO Village Organization

VSC Village Sanitation Centre

WASH Water, Sanitation and HygieneWATSAN Water and Sanitation

WHO World Health Organization

WSP Water and Sanitation Project

WSSCC Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council

WSSS Water Supply and Sanitation Sector


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Executive summary

Bangladesh faces multiple challenges in the sanitation, hygiene and water sectors. According

to the Joint Monitoring Report (WHO & UNICEF), latrine coverage stood at 33% by 2003,

while the proportion of the population with access to safe water was about 75%. Moreover, in

spite of concerted efforts to provide safe water, it is estimated that 25 to 30 million people are

affected by arsenic contamination in drinking water. There are no reliable country-wide data

on hygiene practices.

This makes the goal of the proposed programme particularly relevant: to facilitate, in

partnership with the Government of Bangladesh and other stakeholders, the attainment of the

MDGs related to water, sanitation, and hygiene for all, especially for underprivileged groups in

rural Bangladesh and thereby improve the health situation of the poor and enhance equitable

development.

The programme will be designed and carried out by BRAC, one of the largest NGOs in the

world. Currently, BRAC undertakes its programmes and activities through 32,652 full-time

staff and 65,412 part-time school teachers. Its development interventions are extended to4.86 million households in over 65,000 (out of total of 86,000 villages in Bangladesh) and

4,378 urban slums in all the 64 districts of Bangladesh. BRAC, from the very beginning, has

brought an exceptionally strong and consistent dedication to improving the lives, the position

and to empowering women and poor families. It implements three major programmes, which

are especially geared towards women and the poor: Rural Development, Non Formal Primary

Education, Health and Nutrition. 95% of the members in BRACs programmes are women and

70% of the children in BRAC schools are girls.

The goal of the proposed programme is to ensure that 17.6 million peoplespread over 150

Upazilas - have access to sanitation services that are effectively used, including consistent

hygiene practices. In addition to this, more than 8.5 million people will be provided with safe

water supply services. The programme will ensure that existing water supplies are sustained,

well maintained and managed by the community.

To achieve this goal, the following three objectives have been defined:

Objectives 1:Provide sustainable and integrated WASH services in the rural areas of

Bangladesh

Objective 2: Induce safe hygienic behaviour to break the contamination cycle of

unsanitary latrines, contaminated water, and unsafe hygienic behaviour.


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Overall, this is an innovative learning programme. It contains a preparation phase of 6 months

followed by a start-up period of 1 years. During this initial 2-year period, there will be action

research and experimental or comparative trials on issues such as the most effective ways toreach the very poorest families with an integrated package, trials/research into varied

design/technologies for piped water, improved latrine technology in high water table areas,

and certain essential software aspects such as working with union government, integrating

water-sanitation-hygiene in the most effective way, community management of piped water,

working effectively with other institutions.

For the implementation of the programme, the Health Department will be supported by or

collaborate with the following departments within BRAC:

Collaborating Departments within BRAC

Micro Finance Programme: BRACs micro-finance programme reached 4.86 million

households through 142 thousand village groups (2004). Hygiene promotion has

been incorporated in the regular meetings of the village saving groups. In addition,

the Micro Finance Programme will manage the proposed revolving funds for Village

Sanitation Centres and poor families.

Education Programme: BRACs Non-Formal Primary Education programme has

grown to about 49,000 schools (2004) to provide basic education to the children, in

particular girls, of poor landless families. BRAC also runs a large number of

secondary schools. The curriculum of all BRAC schools includes hygiene promotion.

BRAC Training Division (BTD): BTD is responsible for capacity building and

professional development of BRAC staff and programme participants. An internal

gender sensitivity training programme is part of BTDs curriculum.

Research and Evaluation Division (RED): provides contents support to BRAC

programmes through action research.

Furthermore, the implementation of the programme will be supported by the finances and

accounts department, audit and monitoring department, HRD department, and the

procurement department.

Key themes of the programme

Sustainability: BRACs regular hygiene education activitiesthrough the ongoing health,

education, and micro-credit programmeswill continue after the end of the programme.BRAC will consider the programme to be a success only if water, sanitation and hygiene

services are sustainable beyond the duration of the programme.

Integration :Hygiene, sanitation and water will be integrated at the village and programme

level.


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Strong poverty orientationEven within the BRAC framework as well as in other organizations in Bangladesh--it has

proven very difficult to reach the so-called hardcore poor. These people, who constitute on

the average, about 1 in 5 families, are extremely poor, with little or no land ownership, with

little or no disposable income, with insufficient food or resources to live lives of even simple

comfort.

Using BRACs experience in targeting the ultra-poor, this programme will pro-actively seek to

engage these groups in the programme. The WASH committees that will be established in allvillages in the programme area. BRAC will be the platform for the poor to participate in

programme activities and thereby ensure that they will be fully benefited from it.

The ulta-poor will supported with a partial grant to construct a sanitary latrine whilst the poor

can avail of a loan through BRACs micro-credit programme for the same purpose.

Relevant Technologies/designs

To assure the safe quality and quantity of water needed for hygiene with selection based on

need and demand. The technologies/interventions among which a selection will be made are:

(1) repair of traditional water sources such as ponds, (2) repair of existing water supplies such

as bore-holes/pumps/platforms, (3) implementation of new deep tube wells, and (4) small

piped water schemes fed by bore holes, (5) small piped water schemes fed by surface water.

In the past, only one latrine technology has been available. This will be changed to a range of

options which are: (1) pit latrine with slab in areas where the soil is stable, (2) single pit latrine

with rings, (3) single pit off-set latrine to enable another pit to be added as needed, (4) doublepit with junction box and rings, (5) design will be made available for double pit latrine with

attached bathing area and pucca superstructure.

Private sector collaboration

National soap producers have been already approached to establish new sales distribution

channels through BRACs community health volunteers in areas where soap is not readily

available. BRACs (un-paid) health volunteers will be allowed to make small profits through

the sales of these soaps. This will enable direct sale to women who are not always able tomake such purchases. A second element of private sector collaboration will be village

sanitation centres which BRAC has already demonstration, at scale, to be viable and

essential features of its work.

Coordination

Th i f i l di i ill b d h U i P i h d (UP) l l hi h i h


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Capacity bu ilding of key-stakeholdersgovernmental, non-governmental, and community

at all levels is a pre-requisite for long-term sustainability and scaling up of successful

models. Considerable programme resources are dedicated to capacity building.

Monitoring, evaluation, and documentation are integral part of the learning efforts in this

programme. Two types of monitoring are envisages. The first is internal through BRAC health

and monitoring departments and also through organizing checking/monitoring among groups

and individuals in the villages and unions. The second is external monitoring, of which there

are 4 elements described in the following text.

Financial strategies

Subsidies will be provided to the hardcore poor for sanitation, amounting to Tk. 1,000 (about

Euro 12). Some of the poor families will be supported, for latrine construction, from a

revolving fund that will be established from combined funds from the programme and BRACs

micro-credit programme.

For water supply, the hardcore poor will receive cross-subsidies from within the communities,

although they too will be expected to pay an amount ranging from Tk. 10 to Tk 50 a month.

For Deep Tubewells and small piped water schemes, the programme operates in accordance

to guidelines established by the Government of Bangladesh. The proposed project requiresindividual households to make a total contribution of 30% for new deep tube wells and for

small piped water schemes. Monthly water bills, ranging from T 10 to T 300, will include

repayment and full O&M costs.

At the end of the programme, the two revolving funds (revolving capital for production of slab

rings and loan provision to poor families) will be used to establish a revolving fund in each

Upazila for poor and hardcore poor families for the maintenance and upgrading of their

sanitary latrine. This fund will be managed by BRACs micro-finance programme.

Phasing

The phasing of the programme is based on the micro-cycles that have been designed for an

integrated implementation of water, sanitation, and hygiene activities in a typical village.

Water and the development of the village WASH committee have been identified as the most

strategic entry point on the basis of experiences elsewhere. Adaptations and further refining

of this micro cycle will be done during the programme period.

The programme will start with an inception phase of 6 months. After this inception phase, the

programme will start its activities in the first 50 Upazilas, 50 more Upazilas will be added in

month 12, and the final 50 Upazilas will be started in month 18 of the programme.

Financial contributions and budget


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Everybody wears sandal in latrines.

Hand washing

and personalhygiene

Practiced by everybody after defecation and before taking food. Also after cleaning

child/baby excreta. Strengthen Public Private and Community Partnership (PPCP) with national soap

producers to make low cost soap available in households and all schools

Water Safe water sources are used for all cooking and drinking.

Safe water storage:

Maintain water source

For piped water, the water quality and quantity produced will meet agreed standards

Integration of hygiene, sanitation and water: some indicators

Coverage Raise the sanitation coverage to 80% in 150 Upazilas, including at least 50% of thevery poorest households

In all 30,000 villages, implement the sanitation programme, hygiene

education/promotion related to both water and sanitation and, to the extent possible, at

least one of the water activities.

All schools in the programme area.

Technology

Sanitation A range of technology and design choices

Action researchWater A range of at least 5 technologies and interventions are available

Piped water Small-scale piped water technologies and designs, household and group connections,

with associated community management

No more than 50 can be constructed until a complete post-operational assessment

after completion is showing positive results. Decision to be taken during joint review at

end of year 2.

Gender: indicatorsBenefits

continue

At least 4 out of 5 households

Water sources for drinking, cooking, within 50 meters or less.

Household connections are be made available to poor and very poor families under

special circumstances

Programme

inputs

Women users in decision-making

on the location of water points,

selection of technology.

timing of water supply finance/audit of piped water scheme, purchase

A detailed hygiene education/promotion differentiated for men and for women.

At least one woman and one man in each household is involved in hygiene

promotion/education.

Girls and boys in schools share equally in all tasks for cleaning school facilities.

Separate toilets are provided for girls and boys


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checking,

monitoring

Sustainedservices

Hygiene promotion will continue through BRACs regular programme after the end ofthe programme

Collaboration and participation: some indicators

UP and Union

level

National and district

BRAC will work with the Union WATSAN committee to stimulate their leadership in the

programme.

Villages WASH committees: poor, all institutions represented

The village committees will undertake their own planning based on participatory

assessment in their village.Within BRAC BRAC will ensure cooperation of other department personnel in support of this

programme at all levels.

Learning and Capacity Building : some indicators

Capacity

building

A wide range of capacity building activities for BRAC staff, UP and community

members, local government

Appropriate and good quality training programmes

Action

research/trials

Action research/trials and comparisons of approaches to a number of as yet not fully

known areas such as, for example: WASH committee development, piped and

traditional water supplies, identifying and working with the hardcore poor, new financial

arrangement, latrine technology in flood prone areas.

BRAC will examine and use lessons from other programme/projects in Bangladesh

and abroad.


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1 Introduction

The Government of the Netherlands is committed to the achievement of the Millennium

Development Goals, which seek to reduce poverty around the world. For the water and

sanitation sector, this commitment has a tangible focus; specifically, the Government of the

Netherlands will support extending access of 50 million poor people to safe, reliable and

sustainable drinking water and sanitation. It is not surprising that part of this commitment will

be realized within Bangladesh. The Government of the Netherlands, the intermediate

development organizations1 and the people of the Netherlands have, from shortly after the

moment of independence, have worked in partnership with governmental agencies and with

the robust non-governmental sector of Bangladesh to support national development.

The consultation process, of which this document is a result, started when BRAC submitted a

concept note to representatives of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Dhaka. After an initial

round of discussion, a more elaborate draft proposal was shared with the Embassy and with

DMW/Department of International Cooperation (DGIS) in The Hague. On invitation of the

DMW/DGIS, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) worked with BRAC in

the preparation of the final programme document.

The proposed programme will initiate a holistic hygiene promotion and education programme

to reach out to 37.5 million people, ensure that 17.6 million peoplespread over 150

Upazilas have access to sanitation services that are effectively used, including consistent

hygiene practices. In addition to this, more than 8.5 million people will be provided with safe

water supply services1 million people will get access to safe water supply through new

water supply facilities, 7.5 million people will get access to safe water through the repair of

existing water supply. It will ensure that existing water supplies are well maintained and

managed by the community. In line with BRACs commitment to the poor, the programmefocuses on providing sustained and well-used services to the poor and hardcore poor, and

among these, to women in particular.

The proposed programme builds on the existing framework of BRACs development

programmes which are being implemented in 65,000 out of 85,000 villages in Bangladesh.

Integration of the proposed programme into BRAC will transform it into an on-going

programme with synergies within the larger BRAC framework. With BRAC, the programmes

cost-effectiveness and efficiency can be better ensured. In addition, BRACs long-term andnation wide commitment provides opportunities for government agencies to draw on and

benefit from its programmatic strategy.

Key issues addressed by the proposal

The proposal focuses on key issues which have proved to be most intractable within the

t d it ti t Th dd d i d t il ithi thi l


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2 The context: Bangladesh and its insti tutions

2.1 Socio-economic and development context

With an estimated population of 140 million (estimate 2005), limited resources, and one of the

highest population densities in the world, it has been hard for Bangladesh to sustain a strong

economy and make sure that all of its citizens have the access to basic services. The per

capita GDP is US$ 470 (2005) while 44.7% of the population live below the poverty line.

The human development index (HDI), developed by UNDP, rated Bangladesh 139 out of 177

countries for three measurable dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy

life, being educated and having a decent standard of living. Countries were also rated on a

scale for building the capacity of women in which Bangladesh ranked 103 out of 140,

Half of Bangladesh's GDP is generated through the service sector though nearly two thirds of

Bangladeshis are employed in the agricultural sector. This underlines the labour intensive andtraditional character of the Bangladesh agricultural sector that mainly consists of marginal,

subsistence farmers.

2.2 Water and sanitation context in Bangladesh

Water

To avoid surface water contamination shallow tube wells were massively implemented inBangladesh beginning in 1973. In the 1980s/90s, in addition to government programmes, the

private sector and NGOs were encouraged to install more shallow wells in rural Bangladesh

for drinking and other domestic purposes. Bangladesh managed to provide 97% of its

population with access to safe and free drinking water through these wells. This resulted in a

drastic reduction in the deaths due to diarrhoeal diseases.

However, the intrusion of arsenic contamination into shallow tube wells turned this success

into a disaster. Arsenic has been found in ground water over large areas in Bangladesh; 59out of the 64 districts reported to have ground water sources with an arsenic concentration

beyond the permissible level of 50 ppb. It is estimated that 25 30 million people are

affected. Moreover, Bangladesh is facing other water problems such salinity, high iron

concentrations, and declining ground water tables. The Joint Monitoring Project (UNICEF-

WHO) found that between 1990 and 2005, the percentage of the population with access to


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Bangladesh continues to face multiple challenges that make it difficult to ensure basic

services to its citizens. In the water, hygiene and sanitation sector, these challenges include:

reaching the poorest people, inconsistent hygiene practices, water quality, issues related toquantity (flooding, drought, and water management), improving sanitation technologies for the

poor who live in high water table areas. The institutional setting is complex for addressing

these issues. Capacity and management skills need to be improved, particularly at the

intermediate level that links to the union and community. The Government has had limited

success in targeting the poor and the hardcore poorthose with little or no disposable

income. It has also proved difficult to ensure the sustainability of the provided water and

sanitation services. However, the government has recognised some of the inherent

programme weaknesses and has invited NGOs to support its efforts to attain the MDGs

targets on sanitation and water.

Similar to many other developing countries, Bangladesh lacks sufficient financial resources

and capacity to implement its policies. Spending on the water and sanitation sector has been

low: less than 2% of the total budget is devoted to the sector. Thus, external donors and the

private sector account for the majority of the spending in the water and sanitation sector.

2.3 Sector policies

The Government of Bangladesh has developed a range of policy documents to guide national

development, among others, relating to women and to decentralization. Some of the policies

specifically focussing on sanitation and water are noted below.

The National Sanitation Policies

The Government of Bangladesh has set itself an ambitious goal: to achieve 100% sanitation

coverage by 2010. This challenging target is much ahead of the MDGs and. would require a12% per annum increase. This is daunting task especially as most of the yet un-reached

people are likely to belong to the poor and hardcore poor segments of the population. The

average annual increase has been 4% thus far. However, the GoB is taking initiatives to

achieve this national sanitation target in collaboration with development partners and NGOs.

The government developed a draft National Sanitation Strategy in 2005, which describes the

ways and means of achieving the national target by providing uniform guidelines. The Union

Parishads have been identified as the focal point for the Total Sanitation campaign. TheGovernment has provided budgetary support to this decentralisation by allocating 20% of the

Upazila Annual Development Programme for improving the sanitation coverage. Out of this

amount, following a decision of January 2005, 25% is to be dedicated to hygiene and

sanitation promotion activities while the remaining 75% has been allocated as direct support

to the hardcore poor. In addition, Taka 5,000 has been allocated and disbursed to each Gram


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Sector Development Framework

In 2004, the Government made a Sector Development Framework (SDF) which guidesplanning, coordination and monitoring of all future sector development activities with a focus

on devolution of authority to local government institutions, user participation, economic

pricing, public-NGO-private partnership, and gender sensitivity.

National Policy for Safe Water Supply and Sanitation (NPSWSS 1998)

The National Policy for Safe Water Supply and Sanitation (NPSWSS) 1998 is the basic policy

document governing the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector (WSSS) and providing policy

guidelines. Its objectives are to improve the standard of public health and to ensure improved

environment. It also mentions that the governments goal is to ensure that all people have

access to safe water and sanitation services at an affordable cost.

Central in this policy are the following elements:

The need to provide any rural household with a sanitary latrine and the importance of

behavioural change through user participation.

The recognition of the role of the NGOs in the development of the WSS sector, social

mobilisation and hygiene education in partnership with GoB.

Only schools, mosques, and the hard-core poor will receive subsidies to provide themaccess to sanitary latrines. Credit facilities for the construction of sanitary facilities

need to be made available to the poor.

Private sector participation in the sanitation sector shall be encouraged.

The role of women in planning, decision-making and management shall be promoted

through their increased representation in management committees.

Participation of user groups in planning, development, operation and maintenance

shall be encouraged through LGI and CBOs

Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP - 2005)

The PRSP (tiled Unlocking the Potentials: National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty

Reduction) was approved by the government in 2005 with the objective to achieve

accelerated growth through poverty reduction. PRSP strongly supports achieving the MDG

targets and encompasses around policy triangle of growth, human development and

governance. Sanitation and water sector is given a very high priority and is identified as one

of its 7-point strategic agenda for accelerated poverty reduction. For rural and urban

sanitation PRSP has earmarked 0.5 billion USD.

Sector Development Programme (SDP - 2005)

The Ministry of LGRD&C has formulated the draft SDP for the Water and Sanitation Sector in

Bangladesh and currently is in the process of finalizing it. SDP draws a road map for

development and coordination for the next 10 years. The sector investment plan that is


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2.4 Institutions and projects in the sector

2.4.1 Government of Bangladesh

Public sector activities for water and sanitation are led by two agencies, with specialised

activities undertaken by another 6 institutions.

Local Government Division (LGD)

The Local Government Division of Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development andCooperative is mandated to provide overall guidance to the sector. The Local Government

Division is responsible for overall planning, identification of investment projects and

coordination of activities of agencies under it (viz. DPHE, LGED, WASA) and local

government bodies, private sector, NGOs and CBOs. To coordinate, monitor and evaluate the

activities of the sector and to determine future work, Local Government Division will constitute

a forum with representatives from relevant organisations. The LGD also liaises and negotiates

with donors through the External Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for

commitment of resources for the sector project.

Department of Publ ic Health Engineering (DPHE)

DPHE has emerged as the principal national agency responsible for planning, designing and

implementing WSS work throughout Bangladesh. Except Dhaka and Chittagong city areas,

DPHE is responsible for the implementation of water supply and sanitation projects in the

whole country. In both in rural and urban areas, DPHE increasingly collaborates with private

sector, NGOs and CBOs. Social mobilisation and training was included in the DPHE activities

in 1994 with the objectives of mobilising inter-sectoral support and to strengthen community

participation for sustainability and self- reliance in water supply and sanitation. In addition, theintroduction of Tara Pumps and the Shallow Shrouded Tube well, the Very Shallow

Shrouded Tube well, Iron Removal Plant and the Pond Sand Filter for salinity-affected

areas are major technological achievements of DPHE Research & Development project.

Other government institut ionsthat play a role in the WASH sectors are:

- Local Government Engineering Department (LGED): Responsible for rural infrastructure

and assists municipalities in implementing infrastructure including water and sanitation on

a project basis.- National Institute for Local Government (NILG): Capacity development of local

government bodies including Pourashavas.

- Ministry of Education (MoE): School sanitation in cooperation with WSS projects, school

health education.

- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW): Health and hygiene education with field


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2.4.2 Non-Governmental Organizations

In addition to BRAC, the robust NGO sector in Bangladesh has many institutionslarge and

small of both national and international origin --that work in the water and sanitation sector.

A selection from these are noted here, as examples of approaches and activities that might

provide useful insights or services for this proposed programme:

CARE

CARE has in the SAFE and later, the SAFER Project, worked to integrate water supply,

sanitation with a dominant hygiene promotion/education component focused on the

household. Its project, carried out in 2 districts with small partner NGOs, has involved action

research and detailed monitoring on selected hygiene and sanitation behaviours such as

hand washing. This approach, and the book that has been prepared about it, may provide

useful insights into a strategy for behavioural change.

ICDDR-B- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research-Bangladesh. This

internationally-known research and training institute has supported or collaborated in

fundamental research related to arsenic contamination and its consequences since 2001. Italso collaborates in basic impact research with BRAC. In addition to insights from work on

arsenic contamination, the ICDDR-B also undertook several unique studies of handwashing in

the 1990s which deserve to be studied2.

WaterAid

WaterAid supports projects with NGO partners and works in the field of capacity building and

training, technical support and advice, research and development, advocacy and networking.

The WaterAid programme has grown considerably over the past few years and the variedstrategies it tries out may deserved to be studied, through field visits, for the insights they

could provide.

PROSHIKA

PROSHIKA has installed 25,913 hand tube wells and 414,106 sanitary latrines. It has

established 487 latrines production support with RLF credit support. It has tested 15,084 tube

wells for arsenic and as a consequence of emergence of the arsenic problem scaled down its

hand tube well project. Given the size and spread of this project, it may be important forBRAC to try to work in coordination and to ensure that there is no unwarranted competition

with PROSHIKA projectsor for that matter with any other NGOat the local level.

NGO Forum

NGO Forum, an apex organisation, works exclusively in the water and sanitation sector in

t hi f th 600 l l NGO 10 894 ill i ll di t i t f th t


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VERC

VERC has been working on WATSAN since its inception in 1977. It is working in six districts

in providing technology support for latrine and water point installation and hygiene education

for behavioural change. It has developed nine models of latrines. It has set up sanitation

committees with the help of local masons it trained. VERC follows a participatory approach to

100% sanitation and the model has been successfully implemented in one village of

Sitakunda in a period of about 10 months. This project might be usefully studied.

Of course, BRAC has undertaken considerable work and research, in its own right, related to

arsenic in drinking water. However, three projects for which field visits might also provide

useful findings about interventions are:DPHE-DANIDA Arsenic Mitigation Component: This project is currently being

implemented in eleven Upazilas conducting research and developing suitable

mitigation options.

SIDA- Arsenic in Tube well water and Health Consequences: In 144 Villages under

Matlab, activities that took place included research on health consequences,

treatment of patients, mitigation activities and nutritional susceptibility.

WHO- Arsenic in Tube well water and Health Consequences: Activities included

retrospective and epidemiological study of the Matlab population in respect to

Arsenicossis; Establishment of AAS Equipment at ICDDR,B; Arsenic Mitigation.

BRAC has also collaborated in Matlab.. .

DPHE-UNICEF Ministry of LGRD & Cooperatives: UNICEF has collaborated with DPHE in

the sector for decades. In addition, UNICEF has undertaken school projects for water,

sanitation and hygiene over the past 15 years. Some of these schools might provide usefulinsights into the challenging issues of sustainability and behavioural change within the

educational environment.

DANIDA Coastal RWSP. In the large coastal area project which DANIDA has supported for

the past 4 or 5 years, some work has been undertaken on toilet designs for high water table

areas. This might possibly provide useful insights.

Note:this section has emphasized learning and cooperation with Bangladeshi institutions. It

is also suggested that targeted study visits be made outside Bangladesh. This should include

a study tour to India (example: Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra or UP) to examine

community management and small piped water schemes and the sanitation campaign.


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3 BRAC in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sectors

In February 1972, BRAC was established as a relief organization to help rehabilitate the war-

affected people of Bangladesh. Gradually it turned its focus to poverty alleviation and

empowering the poor, particularly women and children. This was done through organizing

and mobilizing poor people, providing awareness and skill development, training and

education, organizing savings groups, giving them collateral-free micro-credit, and generating

employment for them. With multifaceted development interventions, BRAC strives to bring

about positive change in the quality of life of the poor people of Bangladesh.

BRAC is actively involved in promoting human rights, dignity, and gender equity through poor

people's socioeconomic, political and human capacity building. BRAC tries to bring about

changes at the national and global level in policies on poverty reduction and social progress.

BRACs core competency is the delivery of health, education, micro-finance, and micro-

enterprise services on a large scale to poor rural women. BRAC has developed and trained

local women to deliver these services and organised local groups to receive the services.

BRAC runs its programmes and activities through 32,652 full-time staff and 65,412 part-time

school teachers, spending over Tk. 14 billion (US$ 245 million) each year. Its development

interventions are extended to 4.86 million households in over 65,000 out of 86,000 villages

and 4,378 urban slums in all the 64 districts of Bangladesh. BRAC Education Programme

(BEP) is specially targeted to children who never went to school or dropped out at some point.

With special emphasis on girls, BRAC runs 31,619 non-formal primary schools with 1.50

million students enrolled - 65% of them girls. The health, nutrition, and population

interventions aim to cater for the health needs of the poor people through a nation widenetwork of 44,159 (September 2005) community health volunteers, 3,360 (September 2005)

community health workers, 38 static health centres and 11,988 community nutrition workers.

The programme serves 31 million people through its Essential Health Care, 82 million through

the TB Control Programme, and 13 million under National Nutrition Project.

The proposed programme will build on the strong BRAC foundation in water, sanitation and

hygiene which is described in the following paragraphs. The programme will consolidate and

enhance the current activities, through a combination of: relevant service provision; improvingcommunication for behavioural change; intensifying the training and supervision of BRAC

personnel, volunteers and partners; targeted action research and thorough monitoring.

Involvement of BRAC in water and sanitation

Hygiene, water and sanitation are addressed by BRACs Development, Education and Health


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BRACs health clinic in Shibpur suggest that this intervention has lead to a decrease of water

borne diseases by 30%.

BRACs arsenic mitigation project has tested more than 85 thousand shallow tube wells in

four Upazilas. Between 50% and 90% of the wells were found to contain arsenic beyond the

permissible level of 50 pbb. After awareness raising and screening, BRAC has started

implementing safe water supply systems. To date, as many as 1,970 safe water units have

been constructed.

BRAC Development Programme implements safe water and good sanitation facilities along

with other services through Village Organisations. The Village Organization (VO) is an

association of poor and landless women who come together with the help of BRAC toimprove their socio-economic position. BRACs microfinance staff meet VOs once a week to

discuss and facilitate credit operations. The social development staff and health staff meet VO

members twice a month and once a month accordingly to discuss various socio-economic,

legal and health issues including water, sanitation and hygiene aspects. As of December

2004, BRAC had organised its 4.86 million members into 142,117 VOs across the country.

With a view to provision of safe water and safe sanitation especially for the poor BRAC

Development Project ensures following activities through VO:

i. Awareness raising activities and technical education to the VO membersii. Making credit available with reasonable price to poor women for sanitation

iii. Assisting in acquiring and installation of slab-latrine and safe water options

iv. Supervision, follow up, and monitoring.

BRAC Health Programme with WATSAN aspect

BRACs Health Programme (BHP) aims to achieve a sustained health impact by reducing

maternal, infant and child mortality and fertility and by improving the nutritional status of

children, adolescents and women. These goals are accomplished through two sets ofstrategies: education and dissemination of information and provision of health care services.

BRAC encourage and motivates rural people to use safe water and hygienic sanitation for the

benefit of their health and collaborates with public sector in implementing national

programmes. The Essential Health care programme operates in an integrated fashion with

BRACs social and economic empowerment activities. The primary objective of this

programme is to provide an essential package of health services in all of the areas where

BRAC has established.

The first tier is a cadre of community health volunteersall women, called Shastho

Shebikas(SS), who are the front-line workers of BHP. The second tier is a cadre of female

health paramedics, called Shastho Karmis (SK). As a relatively new addition to the BRAC

Health programme, these women oversee the work of the Shebikas, and conduct health

education forums where the communitys health concerns are addressed. The third tier is a

network of clinical facilities called BRAC Shushasthas The Shushasthos provide technical


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The Shebikas work to educate and mobilize community members regarding critical health matters. For

example, they provide information on child health, educate and encourage the use of family planning

methods, and inform family members on national immunization days and locations. They also provide

other essential information regarding care during pregnancy, water and sanitation, personal hygiene,nutrition, and tuberculosis. The Shebikas also provide assistance to government health initiatives.

The Shastho Shebikas work on a voluntary basis, but they are able to garner some income from the

sale of essential health commodities during their household visits. Shebikas receive 500 Taka, about

8, to participate in a revolving fund.

The collective work of the Shastho Shebikas serves as a backbone for all activities and aspects of the

Essential Health Care programme. The Shebikas work to improve the health of their communities, and

they also gain respect and income as active and knowledgeable community members. The activities ofthese dedicated health workers reflect BRACs philosophy that health information, activities, and

services have immense potential to improve the health of Bangladeshs poor.

The SS and SK work to generate demand for safe water and sanitation facilities through

RAC Education Programme with WATSAN aspect

overty reduction through access to

RAC support Programmes with WATSAN aspect

household visits and health education forums on sanitation problems. The SS assists in

providing loans to both households and local entrepreneurs for safe water and safe sanitation

under the micro-credit system of BDP. The SKs use promotional materials like flip charts,

posters, and leaflets to communicate their critical messages. In addition, information is alsodisseminated through popular theatre, workshops, rallies and campaigns as well as through

the orientation of teachers, religious and community leaders. Another feature of this project is

the promotion of private sector involvement in service delivery. BRAC provides interest free

loans of Taka 10,000-15,000 ( 125 to 188) to local entrepreneurs for manufacturing slab

latrines.

B

The Education Programme fulfils BRACs goal of p

education for those traditionally outside formal schooling. This programme has grown to

about 49,000 schools in 2004, accounting for about 11% of the primary school children in

Bangladesh. BRAC places a special emphasis on the education of girls and the involvement

of families in their childrens school life. The BRAC schools teach the same competencies as

the government schools, including the curriculum related to water and sanitation. The

importance of maintaining literacy outside the school setting has been addressed with

BRACs 878 rural community based libraries (Gonokendras) and 8,811 adolescent girls

centre (Kishori Kendras) that give members access to a variety of reading materials which

lead to raise awareness level of the readers especially related to safe water and safesanitation. The Adolescent Development Programme (ADP) trains adolescent BRAC school

graduates, both girls and boys, in vocational skills, health awareness including safe water and

sanitation and hygiene.

B


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Community based safe water option management

he Research and Evaluation Divis ion (RED)

grammes. RED conducts multidisciplinary

he BRAC Monitoring Department

s established in the early 80s. Continuous monitoring

unity people under sanitation programme.

T

RED provides research support to BRAC pro

studies related to poverty alleviation, health including water and sanitation, socio-economic

development, agriculture, nutrition, population, education, environment, gender, and related

fields.

T

The BRAC Monitoring Department wa

helps the ongoing programmes maintain the right direction. The role of the monitoring

department is to provide feedback through a group of professional experts to managers atdifferent levels, which assists them in taking appropriate corrective actions. In monitoring the

BRAC water and sanitation activities, some indicators used by the Department are:

Number of households covered under safe sanitation and safe water

Effectiveness of different safe water options

Awareness level of the community level

Number and volume of loans to the comm

Choice of the community people about different safe water options


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4 Programme objectives

4.1 Programme Goal

To facilitate, in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh and other stakeholders, the

attainment of the MDGs related to water, sanitation, and hygiene for all, especially for

underprivileged groups, in rural Bangladesh and thereby improve the health situation of the

poor and enhance equitable development.

4.2 Specif ic Objectives

Objective 1: Provide sustainable and integrated WASH services in the rural areas of

Bangladesh

The project seeks to:

Provide hygiene promotion and education through multiple channels (interpersonal

communication in household and group settings as well as relevant mass

communication) for 37.5 million people in 150 Upazilas:

Raise the sanitation coverage to 80% in 150 Upazilas, including at least 50% of the

uncovered households below the poverty line, by:

o Direct support to 4.5 million poor and hardcore poor households to gainaccess to adequate sanitation through a mix of loans and well-targeted grants

and the creation of a facilitating environment.

o Indirectly support 13.1 million people to gain access to adequate sanitation by

creating a facilitating and motivating environment.

Provide safe water supply in 150 Upazilas by:

o Providing 1 million people with safe water through a mix of community-based

piped water supply systems, deep tube wells.o Providing 7.5 million people with safe water by repairing water sources that

are bacteriological contaminated due a lack of adequate maintenance.

Provide safe water and sanitary latrines inputs to all secondary schools in the

programme area with a specific focus on the needs of girls, including adolescents.


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Implement a wide-spread, multiple, and participatory hygiene education and hygiene

promotion for all people in the selected Upazilas that is gender-sensitive and

combines interpersonal and mass communication approaches.

Implement a training, education and community outreach activities with all schools in

the programmearea.

Objective 3: Ensure sustainability and scaling-up WASH services by:

Involving all stakeholders at all levels, irrespective of gender and social status and

strengthening their capacities to effectively participate in all stages of the project.

Facilitating the testing, adaptation and scaling up of innovative water and sanitation

technologies by involving all key-stakeholders and institutions.

Ensuring effective management that continues beyond the programme period through

networks and micro-credit facilities that support communities and households to

maintain their WASH services, through continuing hygiene promotion/education,

through technical and managerial support to institutions and staff.


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5 Overall programme concepts and strategies

The overall strategy is centred on hygiene and behavioural change, which is the backbone of

the programme. Creating the conditions for behavioural change, and sustaining these new

behaviours, will be the focus of the other project components, namely: relevant facilities,

community organization, instutional mobilization and capacity development.

The micro-strategy, described in detail later, is to stimulate bottom-up participation and

planning through purpose-organized WASH committees at the village level whose membersrepresent the entire village (and particularly the poor women), including other committees and

other agencies or NGOs that may be active in the village. Thus the project will begin by

learning how to reach out beyond the BRAC network. The plans are developed and

negotiated at the village, and later aggregated at the Union level with a multi-stakeholder

group. These action plans will have a similar core of contents, with variation beyond this for

the different villages. The village Shastho Shebika (SS) will be supported by a trained WASH

supervisor and the staff of the BRAC local offices throughout.

Overall, this is an innovative learning project. It contains a preparation phase of 6 monthsfollowed by a start-up period of 1 years. During this initial 2-year period, there will be action

research and experimental or comparative trials on issues, for example: the most effective

ways to reach the very poorest families with an integrated package, trials/research into varied

design/technologies for piped water, improved latrine technology in high water table areas,

and certain essential software aspects such as working with union government, integrating

water-sanitation-hygiene in the most effective way, community management of piped water,

working effectively with other institutions. The targets will be fairly low during the first 2 years,

and importantly, some failure in the action research must occur in order to develop a highlyeffective, large-scale project that is institutionalized. At every point the key activities will be

checked/monitored qualitatively as well as quantitatively. It will be important that the results of

this are fed back into the project cycle to improve subsequent activities. At the end of the 6-

month start-up period, among other things:

All personnel, who will be activated over the next 1 years, will be in place and

trained;

Functional links among BRAC departments (community development, education, etc)will be in place;

The programmeindicators will have been reviewed with some revision;

Some action research will have begun;

Monitoring of the first processes and outputs, including the initial piped water

schemes built before the programme started will be ongoing and feedback for


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There are some key themes that persist throughout the programme. The red threads against

which its success should be judged, are:

Hygiene and behavioural change

Integration of hygiene, sanitation, and water

Effectiveness of technology

Reaching the poor and ultra-poor

Gender sensitivity

Sustainability

The following sections describe each of these concepts. In each following section, a set of

indicators is listed that would be used for internal BRAC checking, supervision and monitoring

purposes. These indicators may be refined somewhat within 6 months of the start of the

programme, in response to challenges and opportunities that arise with the commencement

of work in this new programme.

5.1 Hygiene and behavioural change

Impact of improved hygiene

A large and growing body of research shows that consistent hygiene behaviours can have an

immense impact on health and well-being. Some findings of this research are:

The simple act of washing hands with soap and water can prevent more than one in

three cases of the diarrhoeal diseases. Roughly 1,000,000 deaths from diarrhoea a

year would have been averted by consistent handwashing.3 Some new research

evidence showed that frequent handwashing with soap and water reduced the

prevalence of upper respiratory illnesses (mainly colds) by 40%. It is estimated that perhaps 1 in 3 children or more in Bangladesh suffer from

helminths infestation. Research shows that children do not learn as well when they

have worms. Consistent use of toilets, wearing shoes, covering food and

handwashing could prevent much of the worm infestation.

Six million people become blind in the world each yeara large proportion could

have been averted by consistent face washing.

Recent literature has also highlighted that roughly half the bacterial contamination of

water comes from unsafe carrying of water from the well, unsafe storage and unsafedipping/use.

Having, maintaining and using a toilet is, in itself, an issue of personal dignity, proving

privacy and, particularly for women, a greater measure of safety. It also reduces

urinary tract infections as women will drink and eat at more regular intervals during

the day


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Key behaviours and indicators

This project has identified a number of key hygiene behaviours on which it will focus. This list

which can also be understood as a set of indicators is still indicative in the sense that it

will be refined and, in addition, others may be added depending on the local situation.

Key hygiene behaviours and indicators for the programme

Latrines All households have their own or a shared sanitary latrine.

Use of hygienic latrines by all, irrespective of age.

Dispose of infant/child excreta in latrine.

Maintain latrines: pit not filled up, no visible faecal matter, and so on.

Water for personal cleaning is in or near latrine.

Everybody wears sandal in latrines

Handwashing Hand washing, both hands with soap or ash and enough water, is

practiced by everybody after defecation and before taking food. Also

after cleaning child/baby excreta.

Soap (preferably non-abrasive) is available and used for handwashing

and personal hygiene in half or more of the poor households.

Water Safe water sources are used for all cooking and drinking.

Safe water storage: clean storage pot, cover pot, do not dip fingers in

pot.

Maintain water source used for drinking/cooking: cement platform, no

cracks, pump with closed top, and so on.

For piped water, the water quality and quantity produced will meet

agreed standards through regular water treatment, maintaining pressure

in the pipes to avoid contamination and so on.

The programme will focus on breaking the contamination cycle by inducing behaviouralchange for all individuals, households, and the entire community. Hygiene is the backbone of

the entire programme. Programmes that do not ensure consistent hygienic practices are not

sustainability.

Hygiene and behavioural change

Behaviours are the things people do, that is, their practices. Changing and sustaining

behaviours depends, in general, on three things:

Attitude (I or we want to do something) Skill (I or we am able to do it)

Enabling environment (Persons around me are positive. I have the things needed to

do the behaviour. We can afford them. These things work)4

While most people agree about the importance of hygiene practices there is less agreement


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delivered in ways and places that are most acceptable to each target group. For example, for

men: through night meetings, at bus stops or markets, by male field workers, religious

leaders. In summary, hygiene promotion

Leads to behaviours identified beforehand (having latrine or handwashing with soap).

Has different target audiences: for men, women, teachers, local leaders.

has different messages that appeal to each target audience (not usually health

reasons).

Is done repeatedly in different places, times, methods (spoken, written, pictures)

Is done by different people (field worker, VO leader, religious leader, teacher, and so

on).

Hygiene promotion requires social mobilisation and advocacy of opinion makers at all levels.

Bangladesh is one of the first countries where hygiene promotion was developed on a large

scale, in the late1980s, for the national sanitation campaign. One of the learnings from that

time is that it is very important to monitor and to listen carefully to what is really happening in

villages and households. and to use that information to improve the sanitation promotion

project.

While there is overlap, hygiene education is somewhat different from promotion. Education

focuses more on understanding the reasons behind something or trying to plan and usually

takes place in classes, meetings or home visits. A simple example: handwashing would be

explained to show that the soap takes up very small pieces of excreta and small germs from

the hands which are washed away with water. Then the small germs and excreta can not get

into food or in our mouths to make us sick. Discussion might include solving issues such as

what is needed for convenient handwashing, where it can be done most easily, how to protect

the soap and so on.

In this programme, both promotional and educational approaches will be used. BRAC will

take some time at the beginning of the programme to refine its approaches to hygiene

promotion and education and to provide training about these. It will carefully and frequently

check the results of its promotion and education activities. Monitoring should also be done

using participatory tools together with community members, as BRAC has done often in other

subject areas. This information will be used to continue to improve the programme,

representing an approach to formative programme development in which BRAC has

repeatedly demonstrated its skills in the past.

BRACs specific hygiene activities

Hygiene promotion has been integrated into many of BRAC community based activities,

specifically for 5 basic hygiene behaviour messages. Now it will be consolidated and


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to support national advocacy campaigns, although the predominant focus in this

programme will be at the village and upazilla levels.

This network is functioning independently from the proposed programme; hence, hygienepromotion/education will continue after the end of the programme.

The proposed programme will be active on three fronts: community, household and individual.

For this, different strategies need to be developed or refined from current work.

Please note that hygiene is conceptualized with a strong gender differentiation and that care

will be taken to ensure quality in this. For men, much of the emphasis is on decisions to

support (time, materials, money) hygiene in the home, and their own roles as family leader,and through this, their own personal behaviour. This includes an emphasis on technology

selection and maintenance inputs. Hygiene promotion for men will be consolidated and

applied consistently throughout the programme.

Having and using soap provides a health advantage. Where there is a problem of availability

of low-cost, relatively non-abrasive (for skin) soap, BRAC may consider working with selected

Bangladeshi private soap companies. One mechanism for this would be the sale (at low

mark-up prices) through BRAC volunteers in areas where such soap is not readily available.One advantage of this is that it would, in some communities, enable direct sale to women who

are not always able to make such purchases. It would be preferred that selected Bangladeshi

soap manufacturers are selected who would be willing to provide soap at a wholesale price,

to reduce the cost to the poor user family.

5.2 WASH: integration of hygiene, sanitation, and water

The second key project theme: hygiene, sanitation and water will be integrated within the

programme cycle at the village and programme level. The purpose of this is to take

advantage of synergies. For example, in many communities, hygiene is easier to promote

before the water supply construction or repair is completed. Integration also reduces total

costs as some resources and personnel can be shared. Lastly, and most importantly, the

impact is greater... water, sanitation and behaviours when brought together provide a far

greater health advantage than either one separately. Chapter 7 provides the details on

phasing and integration of the activities for this.

Examples of synergies in integrated programming

Hygiene promotion impacts on sanitation and water by:

Improving use and maintenance of latrines at home and in schools.

Improving use of water for personal hygiene, thus improve impact of water supply.

Improving handling and storage of water


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Integration of hyg iene, sanitation and water: some indicators

Coverage At least 50% of the hardcore poor families in 150 upazillas have anduse latrines, practice hygiene behaviours (as listed above), drink and

cook exclusively with safe water. It is expected that another 50% of

the hardcore poor families will receive support from the government's

ADP block grant for sanitation.

Raise the sanitation coverage to 80% in 150 Upazilas, including at

least 50% of the uncovered households below the poverty line. It is

expected that the additional 20% will be covered by the GoB and

other stakeholders.

In all 30,000 villages, implement the sanitation project, hygiene

education/promotion related to both water and sanitation and, to the

extent possible, at least one of the water activities.

Continue (and if needed adapt) ongoing hygiene promotion and

education activities for teachers, parents, and school committees

through BRAC school programmes and expand these programmes so

as to cover all schools in the programme area.

Strengthen Public Private and Community Partnership (PPCP) with

national soap producers to make low cost soap available in allschools.

Technology

Sanitation A range of technology and design choices for latrines are available,

based on demand by women and men.

Action research is completed and applied to develop low-cost latrine

technologies giving 11 months of use (at least) in flood-prone areas.

Water A range of at least 5 technologies and interventions are available to

assure the safe quality and quantity of water needed for hygiene with

selection based on need and demand. The technologies/interventions

among which a selection will be made are: (1) repair of traditional

water sources such as ponds, (2) repair of existing water supplies

such as bore-holes/pumps/platforms, (3) implementation of new deep

tube wells, and (4) small piped water schemes fed by bore holes, (5)

small piped water schemes fed by surface water.

Piped water Small-scale piped water technologies and designs, with associated

management processes are tried out, carefully monitored to assure

reliable supply of safe water, with household connections combined

with public connections within 50 meters of the household. Socio-

economic participatory mapping will ensure that the poor are served.


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In the period of January 2002 June 2005, about 980 thousand latrines were installed, a

large number within a population of 31 millions served by BRAC. However, it was not possible

in all locations for a large proportion of the poor and, particularly, the very poorest to construct

sanitary latrines. BRAC did achieve 100% household sanitation coverage in one upazila,Shibpur.

The Case of Shibpur: total sanitation

Shibpur was a pilot project initiated by BRAC to meet the challenge posed by the Government of

Bangladesh, of meeting 100% sanitation. Shibpur upazila consists of 9 unions, 203 villages and 56,782

households. When BRAC initially started its work at Shibpur, 50.19% of the households in that area

actually had proper sanitation facilities; 46.4% of the households had no latrines and 3.4% of the

households used unhygienic latrines. BRAC started its work at Shibpur in 2003 and during April 2005

BRAC achieved meeting its target of providing 100% in that area.

Lessons Learnt:

Seventy per cent of the households can install and use sanitary latrines by themselves if the message

regarding safe water and proper sanitation use is disseminated to them properly. Support and

cooperation between the government and local authorities is needed for this kind of project to be

implemented. The sanitation materials should be accessible to the community people and teaching

children at primary schools have been proven to be effective in spreading the word about good hygiene

and having proper sanitation facilities.

The programme will return to Shibpur to continue monitoring the results of the pilot to see if

100% coverage continues and whether latrines are used and maintained as intended, with

related handwashing behaviours such as handwashing.

In the past, only one latrine technology has been available. This will be changed to a range of

options which are: (1) pit latrine with slab in areas where the soil is stable, (2) single pit latrine

with rings, (3) single pit off-set latrine to enable another pit to be added as needed, (4) doublepit with junction box and rings, (5) design will be made available for double pit latrine with

attached bathing area and pucca superstructure.

Latrine coverage

It has been estimated that it would take 10 years, given current government subsidies, to

cover all of the poorest households in an upazilla. Furthermore, for the very poorest families,

management and technical support are needed, in addition to motivation something which

BRAC is well-placed to provide. For this reason, a subsidy of Tk 1,000 will be providedtogether with software support to enable the very poorest families to have, maintain and use a

sanitary latrine. The target is 50% of the very poorest families, estimated, on the average to

be about 5,000 families per upazilla, on the assumption that GOB will provide a subsidy for

the remainder during this project period.. Current surveys will be used, and supplemented

with local participatory project surveys to arrive at the exact number for each upazilla.


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sanitation/composting latrines. This is an important subject for study which will be undertaken

perhaps together with other organizations such as NGO-Forum (which has an interest in the

subject) or ICDDR-B. The results of this research, if successful, will be useful internationally

for poor populations living in coastal areas.

Environmental Sanitation

In addition to the latrine installation activities the WASH Programme would address the

broader "Environmental Sanitation" aspects, which include proper solid and liquid waste

disposal and general improvement of the rural environment. The programme support will be in

the form of promotion and education to motivate the communities to undertake environmental

sanitation improvement activities. Special attention will be given to safe desludging of pit

latrines and safe disposal of water from tubewell or tap platforms.

5.2.2 Water

The water component of the project aims to ensure water of adequate quality and sufficient

quantity together with the practices needed to maintain and use the water effectively. The

behaviours include handwashing, safe transport and water storage but also practices such as

maintaining handpump platforms, drainage and repair. A range of technologies and

interventions will be implemented, depending on the need and demand. The options are:(1) renovation of traditional water sources such as ponds,

(2) renovation of existing water supplies such as bore-holes/pumps/platforms,

(3) implementation of new deep tube wells,

(4) small piped water schemes fed by bore holes,

(5) small piped water schemes fed by surface water.


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Quantity of water: repair of traditional water sources

Research shows that increasing the quantity of water used provides a health advantage. This

is because households are cleaner, surfaces are washed, more water is used for personalhygiene. In addition, of course, water has multiple uses which were usually not considered in

the usual interventions of the past decades. Thus improved water services are often used for

household gardens and for small-scale production. Bangladesh has a great number of

traditional water sources usually ponds or tanks that have been gradually abandoned in

favour of tube wells, much to the dismay of many citizens and environmentalists alike. Thus

one of the range of water interventions will be to increase the quantity of water available

through the renovation and cleaning of traditional water sources with community effort and

some small materials input (such as sheeting or small amounts of cement). It is common tosplit sources and this water is to be used for purposes other than drinking/cooking. This is a

low-cost intervention whose major inputs are the labour needed for mobilizing people. NOTE:

The project will check these several times after completion to identify the specific results and

benefits, as well as community reaction.

Bacterial quality of water

Safe water is water that does not negatively affect health. For human consumption this

means that the water has to be free from chemical (arsenic, salt, fluoride, nitrates) andbacteriological contamination. In fact, the great public and international concern that has

surrounded arsenic contamination tends to have disguised the fact that more people become

ill as a result of bacterial contamination.

Two interventions are helpful to combat bacterial contamination from wells that are in use and

can provide good quality water (free from arsenic). One is the careful transport, storage and

handling of water meant for human consumption. The second intervention is the repair and

good maintenance of water points. Thus, for minimal financial input, the quality of water can

be improved through simple repairs. These include making a platform without cracks, with

good drainage, to which the handpump is tightly secured and ensuring drainage. The focus

of this effort will largely be on stopping water from draining back into the well from the surface.

Other simple repairs can also be made, of course. The intervention may also need some

orientation or training. Follow-up checking/monitoring, including some water testing for

bacterial contamination, is also needed in this case.

Water supply options in arsenic affected areas

BRAC has been involved in raising awareness about clean water since the 1980's. After thediscovery of arsenic in groundwater, BRAC initiated an arsenic mitigation project and as an

initial step tested all 802 tube wells in its field offices and tube wells in Hajiganj upazila of

Chandpur district. Twelve per cent of the field office tube wells were found to contain arsenic

beyond the permissible levels. In Hajiganj upazila, 93% of the 11,954 tube wells tested

positive for arsenic In 1999 BRAC in collaboration with UNICEF and DPHE completed a


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same problems along with having the reputation of providing water with a distinctive smell that

the community members did not approve off. Acceptance of Bishuddhya filters was found to

be high among villagers who were living close to river/canal, similarly villagers who were

drinking from the provided deep handset tube wells were found to be highly satisfied.Monitoring of the above mentioned options are tedious and community members are reluctant

to do it.

A breakthrough study carried out by BRAC and WSP found that people return to their

contaminated tube wells when alternative, arsenic-free, water sources provide less

convenience. Arsenic mitigation through community or household filters have proved difficult

to implement and sustain. Piped water supply was found to be a technical option that

provides convenience as well safe water. Thus the preferred technologies for combatingarsenic contamination are: deepening existing tubewells (to 50 meters depth or beyond),

construction of new deep tube wells and piped water supply. The first two are commonly

being implemented in Bangladesh at this time. In this project, deep tube wells will be

provided for a cluster of 40 households and lowered tube wells will be used by a cluster of 5

households.

Community managed water supply

A third technology that can deal with the problem of chemical pollution is piped water supplyfed from surface or tubewells. A study conducted by BRAC with WSP showed that people

are willing to pay for piped water supply. Indeed, the demand for piped water is growing

rapidly throughout rural Asia, including Bangladeshas happened 20 years ago in South

America where community-managed piped water is common. One advantage is that

household connections provide a substantial health advantage. The classic research by

Stephen Esrey showed that household connections are about 4 times more effective in

reducing diarrhoea than public water points. Other advantages include convenience for

women and children if the piped systems functions as intended. If constructed with foresight,

the systems can also be extended to more households over time.

Balanced against these substantial benefits are some major challenges. A piped water supply

is different from other alternative options, as it needs larger capital investments, efficient

management and skilled work force for operation and maintenance. Piped systems are three

to four times more expensive to construct per person served. They are also more expensive

to operate. Therefore the public is usually expected to pay more, as will be the case in this

project where a 30% capital cost recovery is expected. Tariff setting is difficult to do rationally.

For example, tariffs based on number of people in a household often hurt poor families; tariffswithout water meters miss people who abuse the system by using it for commercial purposes.

Piped water can add to inequality. Household connections tend to be taken by richer families.

When poor families use public water standposts, then they might as well have had a less

costly deep tube well which would give roughly the same service. Piped connections using

motorized or electric power can be unreliable Treatment (which should use the simplest and


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From this, it can be concluded that rural piped water will be developed on an experimental

basis initially for up to 50 village schemes, with very careful monitoring, before a decision can

be taken to continue. Close social and physical monitoring should begin at once of the 8

existing piped water schemes some of which have recently been completed and others ofwhich are being implemented. Lessons learned from these should be used in the systems to

be developed under this programme.

The smallest geographical unit for the piped water system will be a village and the average

feasible number of households in a village for such a system is around 350. At the operational

level a local water management committee will be formed in each village and the villagers will

play a key role in selecting the members of the committee. An MOU will be signed between

the community and BRAC, and between all the individual households and BRAC. Thecommunities will be required to make a 10% up-front contribution before the start of the

project and repay another 20% to the project through their monthly water bills.

To allow for cross-subsidies, three different service levels will be offered to community

members:

One or several house connections: monthly user fees will cross subsidise the monthly

user charges of hardcore poor households.

A single yard connection: monthly user fees will cross subsidise the monthly usercharges of hardcore poor households.

Shared stand posts; the hardcore poor will receive a subsidy through a so-called

water scholarship that will be opened in their name. They will be required to pay the

full monthly user fee but part of this fee will be paid through their water scholarship to

emphasise that one needs to pay for safe water supply.

The monthly water bills will cover; repayment of the community contribution; O&M; and

depreciation. The capacity of the communities will be developed to carry out the day-to-day

O&M and small repairs. Larger repairs will be carried with the logistic support from BRAC

and DPHE.

Lessons learned

Adequate time is required for social mobilization, awareness raising, and reaching a community

consensus on selecting, installing, and distributing the safe water options for the affected

communities.

Socially acceptable and culturally adaptable alternative safe water options are easier to implement,and cost sharing is also possible.

Though community contribution is important for sustainability of these options but flexibility ofcontribution money should be con

Documents

WASH Proposal