Bangladesh will achieve at least one of the UN Millennium Development Goals -- access to safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation -- well ahead of the target date, official sources said. "The country has already achieved sanitation coverage of 65 per cent of its population. The coverage is expected to reach 70 per cent by the end of December," Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development (LGRD) and Cooperatives M Mokhelesur Rahman told the FE. Rahman, who is also the chief coordinator for water supply and sanitation programme, said the coverage was only 33 percent two years back in 2003, when the government had launched it as a national campaign. "Until September 2005, 25 Upazillas, 483 Union Parishads and 15 Pourashavas came under 100 per cent sanitation coverage out of 472 Upazillas, 4035 Union Parishads and 97 Pourashavas across the country," he said. He also said 75 per cent of the countrymen now have access to safe drinking water, which was 97 per cent before detection of arsenic in groundwater across the country about a decade back. The relevant MDG target, however aims at halving by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Regarding tremendous success of sanitation he said before 2003, various agencies including the Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE), Department of Health and a number of non-government organisations (NGOs) were engaged in the task of ensuring sanitation. But from the end of 2003 the government involved each and every local government institution in the task of ensuring sanitation for all. LGRD and Cooperatives Ministry sources said the initiatives also included social mobilisation campaign, allocation of 20 percent of the ministry's lump sum budget of Tk 2.0 billion to sanitation, nationwide baseline sanitation survey and a sanitation strategy. "It worked tremendously as the local administrators took it seriously and started working with motivation," Rahman added. The government dedicated the month October as the month of creating awareness among the people about hygienic sanitation through rallies, seminars, symposia, workshops, posters, leaflets and organising sanitation fair each year, a senior LGRD ministry official said. Simultaneously, the government took a supportive project named, the National Sanitation Project, and allocated an annual budget of Tk 250 million to provide sanitation equipment to the poor and ensure availability of sanitation products across the country. "Despite successes in ensuring water supply and sanitation the government is still facing challenges to bring the hilly, slum and coastal areas under the coverage either due to people's preference for open defecation and unauthorised residency," M Mokhlesur Rahman said.
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