COVID-19 Response and WASH Lessons Learned in Bangladesh
Format
SUMMARY
• As of 14 November 2020, there have been 430,496 positive cases, 347,849 recoveries, and 6,173 deaths across the country.
• Since the start of the pandemic, UNICEF and the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) have ensured the continuity of safe water for seven million people (including four million women and girls) out of a target of 10 million people.
• Sustaining behavior-change programms is necessary to continue good handwashing practices as well as scale up innovations in handwashing stations.
• Systematic monitoring and reporting on water quality and handwashing practices in rural and urban areas remains a constraint.
B
ANGLADESH, WHICH sits within the world’s largest river delta, has no shortage of water. Alas, barely any of it is drinkable. Much of the country’s surface water contains high levels of poisonous arsenic, owing to both man-made and natural causes. The effects of climate change increasingly sully the rest with salt, even in wells dug deep. As cyclones and tidal surges from the Bay of Bengal intensify, sea water fills the delta. Salt-ridden soil makes growing rice impossible, forcing Bangladeshis to abandon low-lying regions home to a quarter of the country’s 170m people in favour of more fertile areas or cities.
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