Unique characteristics of the Bangladesh sanitation situation include the focus on its local government institution (the union), a long history of NGOsponsored community mobilization, the willingness of government to work with NGOs, and high population density.
This is a book chapter taken from Sustainable Sanitation For All: Experiences, Challenges and Innovations.
Bangladesh is a hub of sanitation experimentation and model-building. It is internationally recognized as the place where CLTS first developed and succeeded in getting whole villages to declare themselves open defecation free (ODF). Such achievements rest on a broad foundation however.
After briefly reviewing the history of sanitation promotion in rural Bangladesh, this chapter summarizes the most urgent issues and challenges related to sustaining the country’s improvements in 2015. It concludes with some learning points of possible interest to other countries seeking to promote universal sanitation coverage.
