Experts here on Sunday urged the government to increase budgetary allocation aiming to ensure safe water and sanitation for all.
Equitable allocation in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector is needed in the proposed national budget for fiscal 2018-19 to achieve the SDG-6 goal, they told a press conference at Jatiya Press Club.
Water-Aid, UNICEF, PPRC and WASH Alliance in cooperation with different organisations arranged the press conference.
Executive Chairman of Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) Hossain Zillur Rahman made a keynote presentation at the press conference while Dr Dibalok Singha of WASH programme, former Director General of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) Mohammed Abdul Wazed, senior officials of different organisations and WASH campaigners spoke.
Hossain Zillur said the government has shown firm commitment to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), but the relative growth in WASH allocation is disproportionally low against the substantial growth of GDP and the national budget over the last seven years (2011-12 to 2017-18).
He said an analysis of the Wash allocation of LGD shows an increase of only Taka 5.47 billion in the proposed national budget (2018-19), which is not sufficient at all as it requires additional Taka 2100 crore.
Zillur said although overall WASH allocation provisionally showed around 10 percent increase in fiscal year 2017-18, the rural-urban inequality has widened. There is no significant increase in allocation for WASH in the hard-to-reach rural areas, he added.
Dr Dibalak said: “There is a closed linkage between child nutrition and safe water and sanitation facilities….proportions of malnutrition, particularly the number of stunting children, are still high in the country. We need to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all to build a healthy nation.”
A set of recommendations was put forward at the press conference. The recommendations include giving special emphasis on rural and hard-to-reach areas, ensuring strong monitoring and coordination of WASH programme and implementation of Sector Development Plan (SDP).
