World bank approves $170M Bangladesh sanitation project

The World Bank approved $170 million to boost sanitation services here that may benefit 1.5 million residents.

The Dhaka Sanitation Improvement Project can help improve the city’s livability with safely managed sanitation services, particularly in the south, according to a bank’s statement.

“About 3.5 million people surviving in Dhaka’s low-income communities, especially women, suffer most from poor sanitation and high levels of pollution,” said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan. “This project can help ensure safe sanitation, which is vital for reducing public health risks together with extreme poverty.”

Beneath the project, 50,000 new households are certain to get sewer connections, upgrade toilets and communal septic tanks. And the project can help construct a new Sewage Treatment Plant with a capacity of 150 million liters of domestic waste water daily.

“By reducing the quantity of untreated wastewater and fecal sludge into drainage canals and water bodies, the project will decrease the risk of inland floods and thus lessen the risks of water contamination,” said Arif Ahamed, team leader for the project.

Dhaka’s 881-kilometer (547-mile) sewer system is old and inadequate to serve its large population. Untreated domestic sewage and commercial effluent are often illegally discharged into rivers and canals triggering pollution and flooding, the lender said.