WASH Project supported by Water First International
The project, supported by Water First International, started in January 2019, and will continue till 2023. The WASH project is being implemented in Dhaka, Chattogram and Khulna. This year the project finished its third year of implementation. In this project, there are few components, namely Water supply, Sanitation, Hygiene, School WASH component, innovative approaches and CBO strengthening. In the by-gone period, the project distributed 187 Water loans, 83 Sanitation loan, implemented 1854 Hygiene Sessions where 16187 people participated. Besides, seven WASH blocks in secondary schools in low-income settlements and improvement of WASH infrastructures at two Health centers also were implemented. One of the notable elements of this project is the revolving loan fund for water and sanitation facilities. In the by-gone period revolving outstanding fund stands at Tk. 77,952,701.00 (December 2021). Besides, against the target of 175,000, project has reached a population of 143,414 on a cumulative basis. In the by-gone period, the project completed an innovative water supply project in Sitakunda. In this area, Tripura Adivasi community was suffering from scarcity of water, and they had to head carry drinking water from a tiny water spring arising from the nearby hill. Local inhabitants had to first secure water in their water jug and then head carry to their houses across 1-2 km. DSK project established a water tank downstream and then using a solar powered pump, pumped that water to the top of the hill that is at about 700 feet height. After that, now through gravity flow water is provided through piped water network to thirty-two HHs (137 population), and water is at their door steps. Although this project reached not a huge number of users, however misery of this marginal population who lives in hilly terrain and is out of road, power, water supply and sanitation network, is now being mitigated through a metered piped water supply network and also toilets adjacent to all of the HHs. This was a difficult Technical project during this C 19 pandemic, and DSK, with technical assistance from WFI, accomplished it successfully. Local UNO inaugurated the project.