Chattogram, the commercial capital of the country, needs collaboration from all concerned agencies to ensure safely managed sanitation for the city dwellers. In a workshop organized by the Chattogram City Corporation, in association with ITN-BUET and Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), the city authorities underscored the necessity of implementing a citywide FSM action plan to achieve SDG 6.2 by 2030. The Action Plan, developed for Chattogram City Corporation, with the assistance of ITN-BUET and WSUP, proposes contextual solutions to address the existing sanitation challenges. The Action Plan was disseminated on September 16, 2021, at the City Corporation office Conference Hall with the Honorable Mayor, Mr. Md. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, CCC as the chief guest and Mr. Mohammad Shahidul Alam, Chief Executive Officer, CCC as the chairperson.
Proper human excreta management should be the priority to develop a smart city. City corporation, CWASA and CDA must act together for coordinated planning and implementation of sanitation facilities for the Chattogram city
said Mr. Md. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury in his speech. He hoped that Chattogram would be a smart, environment-friendly and clean city with proper planning, management, and capacitated human resources.
Mr. Rafiqul Islam, Chief Engineer, CCC, in his welcome speech, emphasized to consider the topography of the city during FSM action plan implementation. While sharing the objectives of the workshop, Mr. Md Habibur Rahman, Sanitation Lead, WSUP, focused on providing inclusive sanitation services to all the citizens.
Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Ali, Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering, BUET, briefed the FSM Action Plan in the presence of all relevant stakeholders. He said that the action plan comprises ‘specific’ and ‘time-bound’ actions on all the aspects of FSM to achieve “safely managed sanitation for all” by 2030. Dr. Ali asserted that a wide range of technological options have been proposed to cover the entire landscape of the city area, including core, peri-urban, low-income settlement and slum areas. The plan includes activities to ensure the engagement of the public, political leaders, government organizations, ministries and development partners (DPs) in addition to the City Corporation. Mr. Mohammad Shahidul Alam, Chief Executive Officer, CCC, moderated the open discussion and feedback session following the presentation. City Corporation councillors, staff and representatives from CWASA, CUET, UNICEF, TA-Hub, DSK and other I/NGOs gave their comments and suggestions.
In his speech as the Special Guest, Professor Dr. Tanvir Ahmed, Director, ITN-BUET, said that the city authority should give special attention to service delivery along with infrastructure development. He added that the CCC FSM Action plan was prepared based on the National Action Plan for IRF-FSM. Dr. Ahmed highlighted the necessity of capacity-building, awareness-raising and proper coordination among the working agencies in the city to achieve the SDG sanitation agenda.
Around 60 participants, including representatives from CCC, CWASA, CDA, CUET, JICA, UNICEF, UNDP, WSUP, ITN-BUET, Development Partners, I/NGOs, print and electronic media, were present in the workshop. They appreciated the efforts and expressed their interest in extending their support to implement the FSM action plan for ensuring safely managed sanitation for Chattogram City.
