BSS, Rajshahi :More than 33,000 slum households are enjoying sanitation facilities by dint of installation of 11,000 hygienic latrines in the metropolis.Similarly, they are getting facilities of safe drinking water from 2300 tubewells installed in the slum areas besides different other settlement improvement privileges like footpath and drains.The access to improved water sources makes the lives of community members healthier while the constructed toilets and bathing facilities leads to improved hygiene practices and the footpaths improves settlement accessibility and mobility.Mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation Mosaddeque Hossain Bulbul revealed this while launching sanitation activities in Golderbagh area in the city on Wednesday as chief guest.He said the infrastructural and settlement improvement activities were done by the direct supervision and monitoring by 173 Community Development Committees under Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction Project (UPPRP).Local Government Engineering Department has been implementing the project in association with UNDP and financial and technical supports from UKaid and UNHabitat.According to the officials concerned, main thrust of the project is to improve the living and livelihood condition of around two and half lakh poor and extreme poor people, especially women and girls, in the city by 2015.Under the project, the beneficiary communities identify and priorities the environmental, social and economic challenges they face as well as the required actions to address them, said UPPRP Town Manager Ershadul Haque.The slum households have also come together in an anti-poverty savings scheme to raise more than Taka 9.5 crore. Through the savings and credit programmes, the communities now can operate their own savings schemes and create a revolving fund from which credit operations are being managed by themselves. The programme promotes household and community level urban food production technology demonstrations, provides small input supports especially high yielding variety vegetable and fruits seeds, saplings, ducklings, chick and poultry vaccination.It also provides business start-up grants to extreme poor women for poultry, goat rearing, beef fattening and agri-business allowing them to have access to regular income.Besides, the ongoing apprenticeships and vocational training improve the odds of youth landing decent jobs and regular income.Mayor Bulbul urged all concerned to ensure transparency and accountability in all of the project implementation activities so that its activities are meaningful and effective and beneficiaries particularly women can derive its total benefits.
