First national wash accounts report published

Planning Minister MA Mannan unveiled the 'National WASH Accounts 2020' report for the first time in Bangladesh to track overall spending trends in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.

Shahnaz Arefin, secretary to the Statistics and Informatics Division, and Mustakim Billah Faruqui, additional secretary to the Local Government Division, were present as special guests in the publication event, read a press release.

Director general of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Mizanur Rahman presided over the event. Khairul Islam, regional director of WaterAid, and Hasin Jahan, country director of WaterAid Bangladesh joined as honourable guests.

Deputy director of the National Wash Accounts Development Programme of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Alamgir Hossen presented the main features of the 'National Wash Accounts 2020' report.

Representatives from various public and private institutions and development aid organisations attended the programme. In addition to academicians, researchers, journalists, there were officials from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and WaterAid Bangladesh.

The planning minister reiterated the government's commitment to end poverty, ensure good health for all, gender equality, climate, nutrition and food security, decent employment and quality education as well as access to safe and affordable safe water and sanitation for all to achieve SDG 6 by 2030.

He reassured that the government is committed to making progress in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector. He also said as part of achieving the SDG, the statistics bureau will continue to regularly update the 'National Wash Accounts' in the future to develop evidence-based planning and policies in the WASH sector as well as increase transparency and accountability in the WASH sector.

According to the 2020 report of 'National WASH Accounts', in 2020, WASH sector expenditure was 2.18 per cent of the total GDP of the country. Bangladesh spent an average of Tk 11,574 per household per year on WASH (i.e., Tk. 1,502 on water; Tk. 1,985 on sanitation; and Tk. 8,087 on hygiene). Which is 4.3 per cent of the citizens annual household income.

Distribution of household WASH expenditure by income as found that households with low income and living in impoverished conditions in both urban and rural areas spent a large portion of their income on WASH.