WaterAid Bangladesh's contribution to
submission on Urbanisation and water
1. BACKGROUND
1.1 Rapid urbanisation has implications
for Bangladesh in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
and National water and sanitation targets: In numerical terms,
Bangladesh needs to serve:
— An additional 41,073 households
every month to meet the urban MDG water target, taking 71% as
the present urban water coveragei. An additional 24,218 households
every month to meet the same, if urban water coverage is 99%ii.
This will require increase of coverage for slum households given
that 35% population of the six major cities live in slums without
public service provision.
— An additional 13,392 households
every month to meet the urban MDG sanitation target. If we want
to achieve 100% sanitation coverage by 2010 as per the government
declaration, we need to cover an additional 51,674 households
per month. Again this requires a considerable increase of performance
as the annual urban sanitation progress rate is only 8.63% and
16.43% in rural areas.
1.2 The principal challenges for delivery
are:
— For urban areas the MDG sanitation
target has already been met. However, with the urban population
growing twice as fast as the national population overall, significant
resources and attention are required in order to sustain this
rate of access.
— The proportion of urban Water Supply
and Sanitation funding must be increased from 50% to at least
75% and priority should be given to small towns/urban centers.
— A legal/policy framework must be
in place to cover the provision of water supply and sanitation
in informal urban settlements.
— Water Supply and Sanitation services
delivery should be provided in a coordinated way following partnership
amongst and between sector actors to improve sector performance.
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1 WaterAid Bangladesh: WaterAid
Bangladesh has been working through partner NGOs since 1989 both
in rural and urban areas in order to facilitate access to safe
water and sanitation for all. The rural programme currently serves
over 4,268 villages of 6,611,049 people across different districts
and the urban programme serves over 702 different slum communities
of 646,456 people in the cities of Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna.
2.2 Urbanisation: According to the
2001 census, Bangladesh has a population of 132 million, of which
approximately 23% (or 31 million) live in urban areas that comprise
of six major cities (city corporations) and at least 300 municipalities.
The urban population is increasing by 3% to 6% per annum from
three contributing factors ie (i) rural to urban migration; (ii)
geographical increase of urban territory including sub-district
headquarters being declared municipalities; and (iii) natural
growth of population in urban centers. By 2010, the urban population
is expected to be a third of the total population and is set to
rise to 50 million by 2030. By 2015, Dhaka is expected to be the
fourth largest city in the world, just behind Tokyo, Mumbai and
Lagos.
2.3 Definition of urban centers: The
definition of urban area is not uniform in all the censuses conducted
in the country. As per census of 2001 and general perception,
the urban areas have been classified into five categories according
to their functions and sizes ie (i) Mega Cities, (ii) Statistical
Metropolitan Areas, (iii) Municipalities, (iv) Upazila (Police
Station)/Sub-district Head Quarters, and (v) Other Urban Areas.
There are six City Corporations and around 300 Paurashavas as
of 2005. Both are urban local government bodies (LGBs) located
in Headquarters of the six Divisional and District (64)/some of
the Upazilas/Sub-district (463) respectively.
Here, we have only considered the Six City Corporations
and Municipalities which are covered by our urban Water Supply
and Sanitation institutional arrangement set-up. Other urban areas
are covered by rural Water Supply and Sanitation institutional
arrangements.
3. EXISTING WATER
SUPPLY AND
SANITATION SITUATION
3.1 Water Supply and Sanitation Delivery
System: Urban Water Supply and Sanitation services are carried
out by Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA), City Corporations
(CCs) and Paurashava Water Sections, under the policy directions
of Local Government Division, Ministry of Local Government, Rural
Development and Cooperatives (MoLGRD&C) Government of Bangladesh.
In Dhaka and Chittagong, the responsibility for Water Supply and
Sanitation is given to semi-autonomous WASAs, which were created
in 1963 for the implementation of new Water Supply and Sanitation
projects due to greater complexity of mega cities while Department
of Public Health Engineering (DPHE)[129]
has that role to assist the City Corporations (CCs) and the Paurashavas
in the other urban areas.
3.2 Water Supply and Sanitation Delivery
System for Urban Poor: The delivery process in the urban water
supply sector falls in general within two main sections: (i) the
core areas of the towns/cities with established piped water supply
system and (ii) the fringe and slum areas of towns/cities. WaterAid
Bangladesh experiences show that the fringes and slum areas are
mostly neglected by the public sector; however, there are some
NGO activities largely in big cities to improve access to safe
water supply and sanitation for the poor.
3.3 Policy Framework: Although National
Policy for Water Supply and Sanitation 1998 and the National Sector
Development Programme 2005 set Water Supply and Sanitation coverage
for all, no legal acts or by-laws deal with houses without holding
numbers, which apparently excludes all slums and squatters from
Water Supply and Sanitation services. Recently, Dhaka WASA has
developed guidelines which state the rights to Water Supply and
Sanitation services for urban poor irrespective of their land
tenure-ship or holding numbers in Dhaka City. However, these guidelines
have yet to be implemented.
3.4 Water Supply and Sanitation Coverage:
Considering the coverage of the Paurashavas and the two WASAs,
the weighted average coverage of the country's urban areas is
about 72% of which 39% is piped water supply and 33% by hand pump
tubewells. The average coverage in the urban areas is low but
varies enormously from town to town, from almost nil to as high
as 95%. The piped water supply system in the Paurashavas provide
water to a limited population, about one third, living in the
centre of the towns. By December 2005, coverage with sanitary
latrines in both Paurashavas and City Corporations was 79%.
3.5 Performance of Water Supply and Sanitation
Delivery System: Water supply in the Pourashavas is limited
between 2 to 12 hours per day due to insufficient funds for electricity,
lack of storage to cater for the peak and the low hours and lack
of production capacity. Unaccounted for water in Paurashava is
estimated at 33%. Observation shows that Dhaka is no exception
of in this regard. Un-accounted for water stands currently at
50% in Dhaka and 30% in Chittagong.
3.6 Coordination: Experiences show
that interaction/coordination is a major issue due to lack of
clear mandates especially between WASA and CCs in Dhaka and Chittagong.
In addition, lack of coordination between and amongst Paurashavas
and Utilities and NGOs are observed in WaterAid Project areas.
3.7 Investment: Chart 1 shows that
the urban Water Supply and Sanitation sector allocation from government
as well as from donors is declining. The national sector development
plan shows that 75% of total water finance must be targeted at
urban areas in order to achieve 100% basic Water Supply and Sanitation
coverage. However, data from the last five years shows that urban
areas have received only a 50% share. It is also clear that the
donor funding is decreasing dramatically. There are further inequities
in resource allocation between the big cities and secondary/small
cities. Data and observation shows that the largest six big cities
are getting a larger share of total Water Supply and Sanitation
allocation while secondary and small towns are getting only 11.8%
of total urban Water Supply and Sanitation finance in the current
fiscal year (2006-07).
3.8 Cost-sharing/Subsidies: The government
has so far not developed any comprehensive cost-sharing strategy,
and as a result, all population irrespective of income or economic
class is paying more or less the same tariff for water consumption.
In 2004, the Government of Bangladesh declared that 20% of funds
from the Annual Development Programme (ADP) would be allocated
for sanitation promotion particularly for the hardcore poor in
both urban and rural areas. These 20% funds have not been disbursed
in a timely way for the urban poor.
3.9 Capacity Development: Since the
public sector is primarily dealing with core peoples of urban
centers, they need to develop their capacity to serve the urban
fringe and slum areas. Studyiii shows that they lack autonomy,
for example the Paurashavas need to take prior permission from
central government to create posts or to appoint staff in their
set up. They also need permission to revise tariffs.
4. THE IMPACT
AND IMPLICATION
OF URBANIZATION
ON WATER
SUPPLY AND
SANITATION
4.1 Rapid Growth of Slums and Squatters:
A recent study showsiv that 35.2% of the total City Corporation
population (15,447,046) are living in the slums of these six CCs.
A studyv in six selected Paurashavas shows that the total population
of the Paurashava is 332,694, which is 1.45 times the population
in 1981 census indicating a huge population increasing trend.
On an average, more than 18% populations of the Paurashavas live
in slums and squatter settlements. There are a total of 9308 households
with a population of 60,151 in these slums and squatter settlements.
The average household size counts 6.46 people.
4.2 Water Coverage in the 6 CC Slums
and Squatters: Apart from Dhaka, the study also shows that
the slum residents typically relied on tube well ie 66% while
28% relied on municipality tap in the rest of the five City Corporations.
In nearly one third (31.6%) of slum clusters where tube wells
were available, a single one was shared by 11 to 20 households
while in 28.6% the figure was 6-10 households. Another studyvi
shows that the major sources of drinking water in Dhaka slum areas
are municipal taps (81.7%) and tube wells (15.6%). It also shows
that 30% of the slum households depended on unofficial WASA-based
water sources which are mostly illegally operated.
4.3 Sanitation Coverage at Slum and Squatters
in 6 CCs: Only 28.8% of slum households have access to sanitary
latrines ie latrines linked with sewerage/septic tank and latrines
with water seal. Amongst all slums, 47.5% latrines were usually
shared by 2-5 Households (HHs) while 36.5% were used by 6-10 HHs.
In 13.4% of the slums, each latrine was shared by 11 or more families.
4.4 Water Supply and Sanitation Coverage
in Slums in Selected Six Secondary/Municipalities: Sanitation
and water supply coverage in the slum and squatter settlements
is poor. These areas have neither any waste bin nor drains not
to mention of programs to improve the situation. Between 10-46
households share one Hand Tubewell (HTW) while 2-15 households
share one latrine.
4.5 Policy Impact and Implication: The
urban poor living in slums and infringe areas are deprived of
public services and have to buy or arrange Water Supply and Sanitation
services privately at double the cost of those charged by the
public sector. For example, slum dwellers have to buy drinking
water from vendors at Tk. 5/- (1 US$ = BDT 68) per 4.5 litres
while a legal consumer of Dhaka buys 1,000 litres of drinking
water at Tk. 5/-. In addition almost 50% of the monthly income
of a slum dweller is spent on health costs related to water-borne
diseases.
4.6 Performance of Water Supply and Sanitation
Service Delivery System: In the face of rapid urbanization,
performance of the service delivery system has to be improved
by 53% for achieving MDG targetss for urban water supply. To achieve
100% basic water supply and sanitation coverage by 2010, we need
to increase performance of the service delivery system by 71%
and 143% given that present water supply and sanitation coverage
99% and 78% respectively.
5. SOLUTIONS
FROM WATERAID
BANGLADESH VIEWPOINTS
— Water Supply and Sanitation Service
Delivery at Slums and Fringes: Persuading Dhaka WASA to install
water points and sanitary latrines in slums/squatter neighborhoods
was an important breakthrough. It demanded many years and efforts,
negotiation and work with stakeholders to build their confidence
and show them that solutions exist for informal communities to
access formal utility services with a win-win outcome. WaterAid
Bangladesh and our partner DSK, have learnt that by effectively
mobilising communities, Water Supply and Sanitation services can
be established in fringes and slums using decentralized community
options like tube wells where the network is not extended or absent.
— Policy Framework: Dhaka WASA
has mainstreamed WaterAid and partner approaches into their newly
developed water supply guidelines. These can be replicated in
other urban areas for water supply and sanitation provision for
urban poor.
— Coordination: WaterAid Bangladesh's
partner PRODIPAN has developed a coordination mechanism for effective
implementation of urban Water Supply and Sanitation programme
in Narayanganj Paurashava (see Table 1) This mechanism can be
scaled up as a solution for effective coordination.
— Financing: Given that the
lion's share is required for urban Water Supply and Sanitation
sector while its funding is decreasing, a policy framework is
needed to govern the investments of all players. Donor commitment
to financing urban Water Supply and Sanitation is essential.
— Cost-sharing/Subsidy: Under
the WaterAid Bangladesh Advancing Sustainable Environmental Health
(ASEH) Project in Bangladesh, a strategy has been devised that
gives priority to the poorest and is based on people's ability
to pay for urban poor. An effective government mechanism and monitoring
system needs to be developed in order to ensure proper implementation
of subsidy money.
Table: 1—Coordination: What Works:
WATSAN Forums at the Paurashava level
Paurashavas are the local goverenment institutions
in urban areas responsible for providing water supply, drainage
and sanitation services within their jurisdiction. At the local
level, coordination of projects has been problematic for many
years. Different donors, NGOs, local government and other government
agencies simultaneously implement water supply and sanitation
projects in the same urban area following different implementation
strategies and approaches. This leads to duplication, overlapping
and misuse of limited resources and above all confusion amongst
beneficiaries. Therefore, coordination has to take place the level
of local government. However the role and responsibility of local
government institutions in project planning and implementation
remains minimal.
In Narayanganj Paurashava a WATSAN Forum is
working to address these issues, leading to effective planning,
implementation, monitoring and maximizing benefits of Water Supply
and Sanitation projects, particularly for the poor. The Chief
Executive Officer and the Chairman of the Paurashavas were selected
as convener and chief adviser of the Forum and all Ward Commissioners
local government agencies, NGOs and CS representatives are members.
Major activities of the Forum include:
— Measures to avoid duplication of
activities amongst and between the development partners such as
regular sharing meetings, situation analysis, agreements and dialogue.
— Development of coordinated plans
for achieving 100% sanitation in the town.
— Capacity building for local government
representatives on participatory programme planning and implementation.
Experiences show that the Forum can be a model
for coherent implementation of development programmes at the Paurashava
level, with increased transparency and accountability.
RECOMMENDATION ON
THE ROLE
OF DIFFERENT
ACTORS
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| Role of Different Actors |
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| International Level | Government and international agencies must work in order to adopt legal acts/by-laws or guidelines for the provision of Water Supply and Sanitation services for informal settlements in urban areas.
Donors' funds for urban Water Supply and Sanitation sector must increase in aligning with government investment plan.
Donors must help national government in building capacity of national staff in order to effectively deliver Water Supply and Sanitation services in urban areas particularly for urban poor.
|
| National level | Government needs to set a policy framework and legal acts for the provision of Water Supply and Sanitation services for informal settlements in urban areas.
Provide appropriate trainings to the government as well as LGB's staff to scale up best practices in areas of Water Supply and Sanitation services particularly for urban poor.
Assist LGBs to establish local coordination forum for maximum use of scarce resources; Allocate and disburse more government funds for urban Water Supply and Sanitation sector and also ensure effective and timely implementation of sector funds with transparent and accountable manner.
Government to develop effective pro-poor cost-sharing strategies and technologies for urban Water Supply and Sanitation.
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| Community level | Communities particularly poor need to be involved in the urban Water Supply and Sanitation project.
Government and NGOs need to provide information particularly hygiene education, Water Supply and Sanitation related rights etc so that they can influence LGBs for effective and pro-poor Water Supply and Sanitation programme implementation.
Local resource mobilization at local level.
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129
Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) created in 1935
by the government to promote public health through ensuring provision
of drinking water and, since 1954, sanitation Back
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