Study on safely managed sanitation in Sylhet (Bangladesh)

Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in Bangladesh. Even though the government of Bangladesh developed the National Action Plan for the implementation of the Institutional and Regulatory Framework for Fecal Sludge Management (FSM), the establishment of safely managed sanitation is still a big challenge for the urban area. In this project, it was aimed to review the existing services of the SCC in sanitation management and identify service weaknesses to fulfill the requirements of SDG 6.2. Key informant interviews among FSM stakeholders were conducted for data collection. This study reveals that 64% of containment are septic tanks, whereas 36% are pit latrines. One of the main issues of containment is the unsafe outlet connection. About 80% of the containments are connected to the drain/canal/river. In addition, only a few numbers (< 20%) of septic tanks have soak well service. However, there has a chance of groundwater contamination from soak well because of the high groundwater table. Considering containment accessibility, 30% of containments are partially accessible. SCC has only one vacuum truck (about 5000-liter capacity) that can serve twice a day, but near to 15 to 18 trips per month on average. The majority of households, therefore, depend on the manual method for emptying whether or not the service is safe or unsafe. More importantly, there is no dedicated fecal sludge treatment plant in this city and the broken sanitation service chain poses a serious threat to the environment and human health.