Zahura Begum lives in a city slum. She works in a number of houses as a maid in her Tejgoan neighbourhood. Though she cleans others’ houses, her own home always remains dirty.
There are about 500 rooms in the slum she lives in. There are only four toilets for nearly 4,500 people. Hence, many residents of the slum are often seen defecating in open spaces.
“There is no bathroom for us. So, we have no choice but to use drains and roads as toilets,” says Zahura.
According to a World Bank report, Dhaka is the fastest expanding city in the world. It has now got nearly 1.2 crore people with approximately 3-4 lakh poor joining it every year. The city’s population is apprehended to hit 2 crore in 2020, making it the World’s third largest city.
Unfortunately, Dhaka cannot cope with its growing population. A significant portion or the city’s populace lives in slums. These people have virtually no access to the city’s sanitation and sewerage facilities. Among 1,925 slums mentioned in the report, there is only one public toilet each in only 43 slums. And there is. in fact, no healthcare service for these poor people.
According to Public Health Engineering Department and UNICEF, 39 percent families. mostly slum dwellers, floating people and labourers, living in towns still do not use sanitary latrines. Most of these people use non-sanitary toilets and drains.
More worrying is that 23.7 percent families of the country defecate in open spaces while 37.5 percent use hanging latrines.
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