Sanitation Market Development : A Head Start for Healthier Living

Abstract

Given a choice, poor people in Bangladesh will like to be treated the same as any other consumers who go to the market, assess all the options, and then make their purchases either with a lump-sum payment or through an installment plan. Even with an interest component, installment buying gives them greater economic liberty. The Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) not only facilitates this economic liberty, but, more importantly, it also promotes sanitation reform through affordable means of waste management that include hand washing, waste management, and sustainable latrine options. To promote the sustainability of the sanitation program, with the aim of scaling up, WSP designed and implemented a small project Scaling Up and Sustainability of Total Sanitation in Bangladesh (SSTSB) from April 2008 to March 2009. As a result, rural consumers in the five piloted villages of Jamalpur district (Mohanpur, Ghoradhap, Chandpur, Chontia, and Kalibari) now can choose from among 20 latrines that cost from Tk 400 to Tk 20,000 ($5.50 to $290), hand-washing devices (from $.60 to $7), and solid- and liquid-waste-management technology (from $5 to $10). This smart lesson describes how this progress came about.