WaterAid signs MoU with Sida for a 5 year urban WASH project

20 November 2011

WaterAid in Bangladesh has signed an agreement with Sida to assist the urban poor of Bangladesh in attaining their WaSH rights with a financial support of 450 million Bangladeshi Taka equivalent to Swedish Kronor 41 million (3.83 GBP approx) from Sida. 

Ms Anneli Lindahl Kenny, Ambassador of Sweden to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, signed the cooperation agreement on behalf of Sida with Khairul Islam, Country Representative of WaterAid in Bangladesh, in a small ceremony held in the Embassy of Sweden at Dhaka on 20 November 2011.

The support will mainly fund the urban program of WaterAid in Bangladesh under the project title "Promoting Environmental Health for the Urban Poor (PEHUP)" which will be implemented in 3 major cities (Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna) in Bangladesh over a period of five years.

In next five years the project will directly serve over 340 thousand urban poor people in three major cities of Banglades (Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna) through water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, and around 1.6 million floating users through mobile and public toilets. The project will be implemented through partnership with five national NGOs. An additional 20% match fund will be provided by WaterAid for the project.

In the signing ceremony Ms Lindahl Kenny said that: "We know of the many needs of vulnerable urban poor living in slums regarding sanitation and clean water in Bangladesh and are happy to invest in improving environmental health for their wellbeing and dignity.

"The lack of basic services like water and sanitation for the rapid increasing population living in slums and low income communities in the cities of Bangladesh is a serious and increasing problem for the country in its strive for eradicating poverty and becoming a middle income country.  Through our cooperation with WaterAid we hope to contribute towards a more inclusive provision of these services throughout the cities."

Dr Khiarul Islam said that: "We are glad and thankful to Swedish Government for spending a portion of their aid on water and sanitation that will help us a lot to achieve our mission of transforming lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities."