Speakers at an international sanitation conference in the capital yesterday commended Bangladesh on its remarkable success in reducing open defecation and improving access to sanitation, while emphasising the need to prepare for future challenges, says press release. The inaugural session of the conference, entitled Journey To Zero, took place yesterday at Hotel Lakeshore in Gulshan, and was attended by representative of the Government of Bangladesh, civil society and academia.
Abdul Malek, secretary, Local Government Division, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, said, “Rates of open defecation fell from 34 per cent in 1990 to 1 per cent today”. Alluding to this as a joint success, the secretary applauded the role of the government, civil society, and the united efforts of the people of the nation in almost eliminating open defecation.  A presentation on the end of open defecation in Bangladesh by researchers Suzanne Hanchett and Shafiul Azam Ahmed, also cited the role of social mobilisation and the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) movement as being key to this achievement.
Other guests at the event included Edouard Beigbeder, country representative of UNICEF,  Delwar Hossain, chief engineer, Department of Public Health and Engineering, and Engineer Md. Wali Ullah, member secretary, Sanitation Secretariat and Additional Chief Engineer, DPHE. The speakers welcomed this conference as an opportunity for practitioners and policymakers to reflect on past lessons and understand future challenges. In particular, issues such as faecal sludge management, poor hygiene behaviour and the impact of climate change were discussed as pressing concerns that would be discussed in the conference.
The conference will end today, with a total of 8 technical sessions and 22 papers presented by national and international scholars on a broad range of topics to do with second generation challenges of sanitation.