Paradigm shift in sanitation promotion

Although concerted efforts of government, NGOs and private sector are being put, to promote sanitation coverage, in Bangladesh, in order to keep pace with the significant achievement in the provision of safe water, the rate of progress made is not encouraging. The required momentum in the rate of sanitation coverage and the sustainability are still prevailing as prime issues in the sanitation sector in the country. A recent venture to a study area in overcoming these issues is yielding encouraging results. The approach is significantly different from other concurrent projects operational in the country. The project with the new approach involves only the local potentials with backstopping support of appropriate communication channels available within the community. External involvement was very much insignificant and indirect. The community response in the project area towards promotion of sanitation indicates a new direction to address sanitation issues in upcoming projects in the country. The paper aims at highlighting the salient features of the emerging model in contrast to the conventional ones.