Dhaka Wasa to start faecal sludge management

Dhaka Water Supply & Sewerage Authority (Wasa) is going to introduce Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) system using Vacutug machines under a public private partnership (PPP) initiative to increase hygiene coverage in the capital.

To this effect, Dhaka Wasa yesterday signed a Vacutug Lease Agreement with Gulshan Clean and Care under the PPP initiative at Wasa Bhaban in the capital.

Dhaka Wasa Commercial Manager Uttam Kuma Roy, WASH specialist of Unicef Shofiqul Alam, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) Country Manager Abdus Shaheen, and project manager of NGO Forum for Public Health M Nurun Nabi, among others, were present at the ceremony.

The PPP initiative is supported by Unicef Bangladesh in collaboration with WSUP Bangladesh.

Officials said environmental hygiene in Dhaka city is at stake due to the absence of modern FSM services for more than 80 percent households, causing prevalence of different types of intestinal and water borne diseases. Dhaka Wasa now can bring only 20 percent of households under the FSM service.

This agreement will allow households of the city to have access to Dhaka Wasa-supported professional emptying services, known as SWEEP. In most cases, pit latrines and septic tanks are manually emptied by informal service providers, posing health risks to both the public and the service providers themselves.

Sharing their views at the signing ceremony, Dhaka Wasa officials pointed out that improved FSM service is imperative to address the increasing demand of the densely populated Dhaka city.