Who eats away the money? The dilemma of urban water and sanitation services in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is experiencing rapid urbanization in recent decades. Nearly one-third population of the country lives in the urban areas with a high growth rate. The number of urban centres has increased by over five times from 108 in 1974 to 557 in 2013. The unregulated increase of urban centres demands institutional reform, capacity building and resources to make the service agencies responsive and able to cater the increasing demand. Unfortunately, development programmes and the resource allocation scenario over the past years shows a great neglect towards the small and medium towns with over 80% of the total allocation goes to the big cities to maintain the existing infrastructure. As a result, the country has seen a declining urban WASH coverage trend over the past decade. This significantly affects the well-being of the low income people living in the urban areas.