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Modernising urban sanitation in Southern Bangladesh

Last updated: Apr 14, 2023

Summary

With funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), SNV Bangladesh and the Khulna City Corporation (KCC) launched the “Demonstration of pro-poor market- based solutions for faecal sludge management in urban centres of Southern Bangladesh” project on 31 March 2014. The project aims to reform human waste management in Bangladesh and use the waste to produce alternative energy in the form of biogas.

Problem

In Bangladesh most human waste is dumped untreated into waterways or onto marginal land, harming the livelihoods and health of the country’s poorest.

Khulna city, in particular, has no designated dumping sites or treatment facilities for faecal sludge. The challenges facing sanitation are acute owing to a high population density, rapid and unplanned growth and inadequate services such as waste treatment facilities.

Solution

SNV Bangladesh and the Khulna City Corporation (KCC) are working together in a 4-year project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to develop faecal sludge management services in the KCC, and the two small towns of Khustia and Jhenaidah in the Khulna division.

Outcome

One million people will gain an improved living environment and access to safe faecal sludge management. The project will also give 250,000 people access to improved sanitation facilities, and use market-based solutions to make sludge reusable for generating biogas.