Sanitation in rural communities in Bangladesh

Household sanitation in developing countries, especially in the rural areas, is poor. An evaluation of what was achieved in this regard during the 1980-90 decade of safe water supply for all was carried out in the present study. It was observed that even where a safe water supply and sanitary latrines were provided, people did not always use them. While 23% of the studied households had sanitary latrines, children in about 11.5% of these households did not use them and women in about 6% of households did not use them for micturition at night. Not a single house in the study area could fulfil all the criteria of sanitary housing in a strict sense; for example, although 34.5% of the households had tubewells, only 11.5% of them had a satisfactory level of water usage. Since socioeconomic conditions and education influence the level of sanitation, improvements in both are required.