World bank approves $170M Bangladesh sanitation project

DHAKA, Bangladesh

The World Bank approved $170 million to improve sanitation services here that will benefit 1.5 million residents.

The Dhaka Sanitation Improvement Project will help improve the city’s livability with safely managed sanitation services, particularly in the south, according to a bank’s statement.

“About 3.5 million people living in Dhaka’s low-income communities, especially women, suffer most from poor sanitation and high levels of pollution,” said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan. “This project will help ensure safe sanitation, which is essential for reducing public health risks as well as extreme poverty.”

Under the project, 50,000 new households will get sewer connections, upgrade toilets and communal septic tanks. And the project will help construct a new Sewage Treatment Plant with a capacity of 150 million liters of domestic waste water daily.

“By reducing the volume of untreated wastewater and fecal sludge into drainage canals and water bodies, the project will decrease the risk of inland floods and thus lessen the risks of water contamination,” said Arif Ahamed, team leader for the project.

Dhaka’s 881-kilometer (547-mile) sewer system is old and inadequate to serve its large population. Untreated domestic sewage and industrial effluent are often illegally discharged into rivers and canals causing pollution and flooding, the bank said.