While access to basic drinking water has been made available almost universally, and this success has significantly advanced Bangladesh's progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, this progress isn't uniform everywhere. In many parts of the country, particularly in hard-to-reach areas, WASH services are still lagging, and the situation is becoming increasingly urgent.
Structural obstacles, including geographical isolation, extreme poverty, and the devastating effects of climate change, have made life even tougher for people in these regions. The National Strategy for Water and Sanitation Development in Hard-to-Reach Areas of Bangladesh (2012) defines hard-to-reach areas not just as those with difficult roads or a lack of communication, but also as areas with challenging geological conditions and frequent natural disasters that weaken water and sanitation systems.
This perpetuates a cycle of high child mortality and poverty. The identified hard-to-reach areas include haors, baors, chars, coastal regions, and hills. In the current context, tea gardens and urban low-income communities are also considered hard-to-reach.
In coastal areas, as well as in haors, chars, and hills, seasonal changes often damage water sources. The quality of water is also usually poor due to contamination from arsenic, iron, and bacteria. Latrines are frequently destroyed or damaged by floods or river erosion. Low-income communities in cities and tea gardens often have unhygienic, shared toilets.
There are insufficient facilities for menstrual hygiene management for women and adolescent girls in these areas, particularly in schools, workplaces, and other public places.
Natural disasters, such as floods, droughts, cyclones, landslides, and waterlogging, repeatedly damage WASH infrastructure. This infrastructure is vulnerable to destruction due to a lack of climate-resilient design and poor coordination with disaster risk reduction measures.
The poorest families cannot afford the costs of improved WASH services or maintenance. Logistical challenges and high costs also complicate the delivery of services to hard-to-reach areas. A lack of coordination between government agencies and NGOs, inadequate budgets, and weak oversight further worsen the situation.
The primary issue in the Barind region is drought, which is exacerbated by the hard soil, resulting in a significant drop in the groundwater level. Solutions include introducing artificial groundwater recharge systems, rainwater harvesting, and building drought-resilient WASH infrastructure.
