Toilet success, sewer failure

Last Wednesday, countries observed the World Toilet Day with three key messages: we'll always need the toilet, toilets are under pressure and we need toilets fit for the future. The significance of these messages cannot be overstated. UN-Water, the UN's coordination mechanism on water and sanitation, set 'sanitation in a changing world' as the theme for this year's World Toilet Day, recognising that inadequate sanitation is a global crisis, with Bangladesh among the many affected countries. Data provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF showed that 3.4 billion people still live without safely managed sanitation services, a staggering figure that underscores the urgency of the issue. In other words, nearly half of the world's population do not have a safe sanitation system. The implication is severe. For instance, unsafe water coupled with inadequate sanitation and perilous hygiene is responsible for the deaths of around 1,000 children under five every day.

The WHO defines sanitation as 'access to and use of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human excreta.' The sanitation services range from the provision and emptying of toilets to the transport, treatment and final disposal or use of excreta. Handwashing is a key part of sanitation and personal hygiene that removes infectious agents from hands and prevents spread of disease. In Bangladesh, safe sanitation is still a big challenge, though the country made the toilet revolution more than a decade ago and drew global attention.  

Key indicators of the toilet revaluation are the reduction of open defecation, enhanced use of sanitary toilets and improved sanitation. Bangladesh has made significant strides in these areas, reducing the rate of open defecation to almost zero per cent around a decade ago and increasing the use of hygienic toilets to around 70 per cent. The ratio of non-sanitary or kaccha toilets is also below 3.0 per cent. This remarkable progress in eliminating open defecation and increasing the use of sanitary toilets has significantly reduced overall health hazards, offering hope for further improvements.

The Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2025, jointly conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), showed that 73 per cent of the country's households have access to basic sanitation, which refers to the use of improved facilities not shared with other households. The improved sanitation facilities are 'those designed to hygienically separate excreta from human contact and include flush/pour flush to piped sewer system, septic tanks or pit latrines; ventilated improved pit latrines, composting toilets or pit latrines with slabs.' Around 19 per cent are using limited sanitation, such as an improved facility shared with other households. Only around 8.0 per cent are practising unimproved sanitation facilities that include flush or pour flush to an 'open drain, pit latrines without a slab, hanging latrines and bucket latrines.' 

Nevertheless, according to the survey report, only 4.3 per cent of households in Bangladesh are connected to a sewer line, indicating that a lot of work needs to be done in this regard to improve overall sanitation. Generally, households not connected to a functioning wastewater sewer generate wastewater, and the excreta mostly end up in water bodies through either inefficiently built and improperly managed septic tanks or pit latrines, causing groundwater contamination, or via storm drains, which in turn contaminate open water bodies. In Bangladesh, around 76 per cent of households safely dispose of excreta in situ through improved on-site sanitation facilities, according to the MICS 2025 released last week.  A recent study (Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development (2025) 15 (4): 287-304) found that a lack of knowledge about sewer connection procedures and perceived low risks of disease transmission are two significant barriers at the individual level to adopting sewer connection. Moreover, complex administrative processes, high installation costs, bureaucratic delays, inadequate support from DWASA, and outdated infrastructure are organisational-level barriers to this. So, it is time to overcome the obstacles in a well-planned manner to connect toilets to a sewer line properly.

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