Rehennuma Tarannum Rifat:

Questions have been raised about the success of ‘Integrated Sanitation and Hygiene project’ in the 10 prioritized towns of the country including Sirajganj under the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), as most of the latrines in the project are not being set up at hygienic locations.

Besides, the use of low-quality construction materials is feared to increase health risks within a short time, conscious quarters said.

Experts fear that, the goal of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) funded project involving around TK 126 crore may not be achieved due to faulty plans, massive corruptions and irregularities by the concerned contractors and Executive Engineers.

It is learnt that, due to the dense population in these towns, most of the latrines under the project have been and are being installed in front of or very close to the bedrooms or dining rooms or doors of the beneficiaries, which is increasing the health risk rather than health safety.

There is a possibility of increasing health risk in the future, because the semi-paved latrines are being built with low-quality tin, wood and other materials, which many believe will be destroyed very soon.

In most cases, the latrines installed near the living quarters or dining rooms are not fully paved and have tin fences, which results in a strong stench of feces and flies spreading various types of germs, which are causing various types of diseases and there is a fear of spreading more diseases in the future.

There are allegations that, most of the latrines are being built with rigging. Low-quality materials are being used. The main contractors who have received the work order are not doing the work. They are often carrying the works by another person or party.

As a result, there is a lack of supervision in the works as most of the works are being done by third party. Similarly, the allegations are intensified that, the third parties whose take the sub-contract secretly are working in a biased manner in the hope of more profit, insiders said.

In an investigation, The Daily Sky Correspondent came to know that, the construction of 4000 nos containment (capacity-1000 litres) latrines involving around TK 12.60 crore is going on in Sirajganj municipal town like nine other towns in the country under the project in two phases (each contained 2000 latrines with around TK 6.29 crore).

Meanwhile, the work of first phase has progressed by 80 percent, while the second phase is nearing to 12 percent, officials said.

But, most of those tin-shed latrines have been installed near to bedroom or kitchen room that posing serious health hazard.

There is allegation that, most of those pit latrines have been installed with below standard materials like number-3 type of bricks, low-cost of toilet pans, rodless pillars (Column without rod), sandy ring-slabs and ultra-thin corrugated tin.

Sources said, number-3 bricks have been used in construction of the latrines. As a result, most of the bricks were broken down to pieces while transporting. Besides, pillars, which have been used for the fencing of latrines, were built with GI-wire instead of rod. Ultra-thin colourful tins instead of scheduled 170mm have been used for the fencing of latrines that fears to be damaged and rusted within short time. Besides, substandard and low-cost toilet pans and ring-slabs have been used at most of the places.

One of the contracting firms is GDL-MEA JV. But none of the contracting firm was found at the working sites during recent visit.

Seeking anonymity, a latrine receiver of Mahmudpur area in Sirajganj Municipal town said, a sub-contractor of the project was forced to take back the bricks from the working site after protest by the locals due to their low-quality. Most of the bricks turned to pieces by breaking while carrying.

Another recipient of Raipur area of the town said, only 180 pieces of low-quality bricks and one sack of cement were used in each latrine construction. Besides, two stairs have been constructed at some places despite the need for three. Due to installation of tin-shed latrines near the bedroom or dining room or kitchen room in the highly populated areas, bad-smell is always spread out from the latrines that disrupting public life.

Experts say that, the decision to build tin-shed semi-pacca toilets in densely populated municipalities was unwise. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB)-financed project could be revised and monitoring should be increased to ensure cent percent success. Otherwise, most of the money will go to the drain, they opined.

While contacted, Md. Rokonuzzaman, Executive Engineer of the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) in Sirajganj admitted about some discrepancies and blamed for the manpower crisis. He however said that, supervision will be increased in future.

Sources said, dilapidated condition of the project like Sirajganj is prevailed at all the 10 municipalities in the country due to lack of proper supervision by the authorities concerned.

Despite repeated attempts to get comments from the concerned Project Director (PD) SM Shamim Ahmed on this matter, he did not respond the phone calls.