The city leaders and officials of the Chattogram Region of the Municipal Association of Bangladesh (MAB) have asserted commitment to implement City Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) to attain SDG 6.2 by 2030. On 12th January 2023, ITN-BUET and CWIS-FSM Support Cell (CFSC) of DPHE facilitated a technical session hosted by WaterAid Bangladesh (WAB) on ‘Orientation on CWIS’ for the participants from Chattogram Region of MAB. This was the sixth technical session of the ‘MAB General Meeting 2023 & Symposium on Sustainable Cities’ held from 11th to 12th January, 2023 in Cox’s Bazar City. The session was presided by Mr. Mujibur Rahman, Mayor, Cox’s Bazar Municipality. Mr. Dewan Kamal Ahmed, President, MAB and Mayor, Nilphamari Municipality, graced the session as the chief guest and Mr. Md. Khalid Hossain, Secretary General, MAB and Mayor, Madaripur Municipality, was the special guest of the session. Around 70 participants including the Mayors, Panel Mayors, Councilors, Engineers, Paura Nirbahi Officers, Medical Officers, Town Planners and Slum Development Officers from 26 municipalities of MAB Chattogram Region as well as from other regions of MAB attended the CWIS Orientation Session.
Mr. Tahmidul Islam, Technical Advisor – WASH, WAB welcomed all and provided a brief on the journey of WAB towards safely managed sanitation and CWIS in the cities of Bangladesh. Then Mr. Sanjoy Mukherjee, Social Development Expert, CFSC, DPHE briefed about the roles and responsibilities of CFSC towards CWIS implementation in the cities of Bangladesh and attainment of SDG 6.2 by 2030. Finally, Mr. Imtiaz Sharif, Training Specialist, ITN-BUET delivered an orientation on CWIS.
The CWIS orientation highlighted the aspects of rapid urbanization and associated sanitation problems in Bangladesh, shift of the concept of sanitation from MDG to SDG, i.e., from ‘improved toilet’ to ‘safely managed sanitation’, conventional sanitation technologies and associated challenges in the urban context, mingling of technologies and services for ensuring sanitation for all, concept of CWIS as a plausible approach to attain SDG 6.2, CWIS principles and framework and a few examples of implementation of CWIS aspects in Bangladesh. During the session, the audience made queries on relevant issues, which were addressed by the facilitators.
The participants form Chattogram Region of MAB recognized CWIS as the prime approach to implement safely managed sanitation at their cities and made commitment to implement CWIS. They also raised the demand for the necessity of financial support from the government to implement CWIS and requested MAB to coordinate with the government in this regard. In the concluding speech, Mr. Dewan Kamal Ahmed, the chief guest of the session, thanked WAB, CFSC and ITN-BUET for hosting and delivering the CWIS orientation, and requested to continue the efforts in CWIS capacity building of the municipalities of Bangladesh through orientations, trainings, exposure visits at home and abroad and other effective measures. Mr. Ahmed concluded that MAB would continue the advocacy with the government to channelize the required funding support to the municipalities in CWIS implementation and thereby attaining SDG 6.2 in all the cities of Bangladesh.
