Strengthening the role of WASH and disabilities in Bangladesh

In 2014, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and IRC obtained a grant from the Australian Development and Research Awards Scheme) to research accessibility to sanitation in relation with disabilities in Bangladesh and Malawi. The project, aims to obtain prevalence of disability related problems on access and accessibility to sanitation and reflect on a mitigation strategy to be rolled out beyond the project. Iinitial findings based on the survey are: To address the problem of adapted sanitation facilities, a general mobility problem needs solving first; to discuss solutions, social barriers around both sanitation and disability need to be lifted by all relevant stakeholders. To address suitable solutions in a cost-effective and up-scalable way, a dialog between provider and user seems to be the best way forward in Bangladesh. At the same time, self-assessment by the disabled does not always result in the most appropriate solution.