Editorial
Sanitation for all by 2010
Goal being more sloganised than fulfilled
Perhaps the least addressed among the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Bangladesh is the one that aims at 100 percent sanitation for all by 2010. There are evident voids in the sanitation coverage -- vast empty spaces on the ground -- that must be rapidly filled in if we are to achieve the goal in the two years left of the deadline.
The dialogue that was held on Tuesday last between the grassroots people and the representatives of various organisations involved in throwing sanitary lifelines to our citizens could not have come a day later. We felicitate the whole set of stakeholders involved in the interactive session that has proved both eye-opening, and we hope, useful, too.
The identification of the core issues in terms of where the gaps exist and what need to be done to bridge these should help the planners and implementers to stay the course towards an expeditious fulfillment of the sanitation related MDG. The attention ought to be focused on the vast swathes of city slums and the rural outbacks.
The urban slum dwellers live in constant fear of eviction, so that they are neither expected nor able to have sanitary toilets of their own. These slums will have to be relocated in specifically designated places to bring them under sanitary coverage. Primarily, it is the responsibility of the government to provide them with minimum housing complete with rudimentary amenities of life. We need to have community toilets with a realistic ratio between the number of such units and that of the users. In the interim, however, the slum owners should be directed to put in place basic sanitation measures.
Not a few clusters of high-rise buildings with open sewer lines are situated in close proximity to the slums. Consequently, the sewage from the former pour on to the vicinity of the ghettoes and vice-versa. This makes for the most dangerous brew in many places. The high-rise building owners should live by examples and keep from open sewer lines.
The government, local bodies and activist organisations should move in a concert to put in place a strong monitoring system. The associations of slum dwellers and poor people in rural areas need to be part of the system. Actually, we wonder where has the entire array of sanitary inspectors we got accustomed to seeing in our midst gone? The municipalities, city corporations and union parishads should strengthen sanitary inspectors' cadre with adequate government assistance thrown in.
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