Challenges acknowledged but ignorance continued: WASH deprivation of excluded community intensified- Bangladesh

Several study reports published by the statistical division of the government also provide details of the districts, sub-districts and areas where coverage is extremely low. However, the allocation of resources by the Government does not show that  importance has been given to the study findings to address such geographical exclusion. A recent WaterAid study suggests that the government has spent over 4 billion taka during the last seven fiscal years through 42 development projects on issues related to sanitation. However, none the projects was targeted to reach any excluded areas. 0.42 per cent of the ADP money over the past 7 fiscal years was spent to provide subsidy to the poor for installation of sanitary toilets; however, another WaterAid study suggests that benefits do not reach to the socially and geographically excluded communities. Although the government policy, strategy and subsidy programme on sanitation stress the need to attack poverty directly to ensure equity, this  paper argues that focused programmes targeting the excluded communities are extremely important and pro-poor strategy for the WASH sector needs to be revised accordingly to achieve the MDG goal on sanitation within the stipulated time.