Bangladesh Faces a WASH Crisis That Threatens Global Health and SDG Progress

In Dhaka’s industrial hub of Tejgaon, where the machinery of Bangladesh’s economy never rests, a silent crisis is corroding the nation’s health and dignity. The workers driving this economic powerhouse live in deplorable conditions—an irony in a story of rapid progress.

A recent survey among Tejgaon’s slum dwellers paints a grim picture: more than half rely on basic pit latrines, 38 percent use fragile tin toilets, and nearly one in ten families depend on makeshift facilities made of cloth and wood. Overcrowding deepens the indignity—over 40 percent of households share one toilet with three to six others, while some share with as many as twenty families. For women and children, the lack of privacy and sanitation translates into daily exposure to harassment, infection, and shame.

Hygiene tells a similar story of neglect. Only 43 percent of respondents consistently use soap after toilet use—a shortfall not due to ignorance but to poverty. The inability to afford soap fuels diarrhoeal diseases, skin infections, and respiratory illnesses. Children suffer the most, missing school and facing malnutrition.

Access to safe water is equally fraught. Only 27 percent of residents have private water sources, one-third rely on shared supplies, and 32 percent use local tube wells—many contaminated with arsenic. Nearly half consume fewer than seven glasses of water a day, risking dehydration and kidney complications.

These WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) failures are not isolated to slums—they ripple across the entire economy. When factory workers, drivers, and domestic aides fall ill, productivity drops and healthcare costs surge, turning this public health failure into an economic one.

At the national level, data from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) highlights the scale of the crisis. While 99.5 percent of households have access to a water source, only 60.7 percent have basic sanitation, and a mere 56.3 percent meet hygiene standards. The World Health Organization attributes 88 percent of diarrhoeal diseases to unsafe water and poor sanitation—conditions that continue to plague Bangladesh. The nation remains among the top ten globally for tuberculosis cases, illustrating how inadequate WASH infrastructure fuels preventable disease and global health risks.

Meanwhile, Dhaka’s water supply system teeters on collapse. According to Dhaka WASA, around 70 percent of its 2,680 million liters of daily supply comes from underground aquifers. This over-extraction has caused groundwater levels to plunge—from less than one meter below ground in the 1970s to more than 60 meters in Tejgaon, Mirpur, and Basabo—dropping by 1 to 1.5 meters every year. Hydrogeologist Dr. Anwar Zahid warns that without urgent action, levels could reach 100 meters by 2050, rendering parts of the city waterless. Already, residents in areas like Rampura and Jatrabari face dry taps and are forced to buy or borrow water.

Globally, the retreat of development aid is worsening the WASH crisis. The guiding principle of “leaving no one behind”, central to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is now in jeopardy. Severe funding cuts—such as the near-90% reduction in USAID’s budget and the UK’s decision to limit Official Development Assistance to 0.3% of its national income—have created a critical financing gap. As a result, more than 700,000 people in countries like Colombia, Mali, and Burkina Faso have lost access to safe water. With sanitation already the most off-track SDG, these aid cuts threaten to prolong the suffering of nearly 800,000 children who die each year from diarrhoeal diseases.

In war-torn Gaza, the crisis has reached its most extreme form. As Professor Lyla Mehta notes, water and sanitation have been weaponized—two million Palestinians denied access to safe water as desalination plants collapse under siege.

Against this backdrop, the World Bank’s $280 million project to improve Chattogram’s water supply stands out as a rare example of progress driven by political will and sustained investment. But isolated success stories are not enough.

The WASH crisis in Tejgaon is more than a local tragedy—it is a test of Bangladesh’s commitment to inclusive, sustainable development. The choice is stark: continue building economic prosperity on neglected human needs, or recognize that the well-being of every factory worker, driver, and mother is inseparable from the nation’s collective health, stability, and conscience.

For reasons of justice, humanity, and survival, Bangladesh—and the world—must act now.

Author: Dr. Arman Amir