Environmental sanitation at rural households in rural areas

A comprehensive intervention including safe water, sanitation and hygiene is required to break the cycle of disease transmission, thus, to ensure environmental sanitation. BRAC WASH programme  worked in 150 upazilas since 2006 to improve health status of the rural poor. This study aimed to measure indicators of environmental sanitation by economic groups (e.g. ultra poor, poor and non-poor) from baseline to end line. Thirty thousand households from 50 sub-districts were selected following a multi-stage sampling design. Data were collected from households through direct interview using pre-tested questionnaire. The matched households in both surveys were included in the analysis. Chi-square and T-tests compared the differences between indicator values

. Results show that change in use of tubewell water from baseline to end line among the poor and non-poor increased by 14.66% and 9.56%, while the status remained nearly same among the ultra poor (by 0.59%). The change in building concrete platform was found highest among the ultra poor (by 124.9%) compared to the poor (by 53.6%), and non-poor (by 37.2%) respectively. Cleanliness of tubewell platform increased by 183.3% in the ultra poor which was better performing group than the poor, and non-poor. Sanitary latrine use increased in all the economic groups by 159.20% in the ultra-poor, 99.60% in the poor and 53.61% in the non-poor from baseline to end line respectively. The change in latrine cleanliness was found higher among the poor (by 65.97%) compared to the ultra poor (by 60.14%) and non-poor (by 54.02%). Reported sickness decreased from baseline to end line by -83.06%, -81.58% and -80.29% among the poor, non-poor and ultra-poor respectively. Disposal of wastes (solid or liquid) needs to be in such way which resists disease transmission.