Facilities for the disabled
Handles help Mokbul Hossain access a water point in Dhaka.
Who cares, a new short video produced by WaterAid in Bangladesh, explores innovative work being done to adapt water and sanitation facilities to cater to the needs of disabled people.
The estimated 10 million people living with disabilities in Bangladesh are a disadvantaged group that tends to be neglected within society. Women and children are particularly vulnerable; people often make fun of them and many are forced to beg for a living.
Where there are no water and sanitation facilities, or the facilities are inaccessible, disabled people face a daily struggle to meet their basic needs. Many live in extremely unhygienic conditions, with a high risk of contracting deadly water-related diseases.
Handles help disabled people to use latrines independently.
Through discussions with disabled people, the wider community and experts, WaterAid and local partner organizations have developed solutions that are enabling people with disabilities to use new water and sanitation facilities without the help of a carer.
Simple solutions such as installing handles at water points and in latrines can make a world of difference in enabling disabled people to use facilities independently.
The height of the tubewell platform has been lowered. Now we feel comfortable.
Mokbul Hossain (pictured above), a disabled man from Dhaka featured in Who cares, has benefited from the new adaptive facilities installed in the slum where he lives. He commented:
“The height of the tubewell platform has been lowered. Now we feel comfortable. We used to face difficulties in using the toilet. There are two rings in the toilet. Now we feel comfortable.”
As well as being very liberating for the disabled people themselves, meeting the water and sanitation needs of disabled people extends health and hygiene benefits to the whole community. It is vital that everyone is able to use latrines for open defecation and its associated health risks to be eliminated.
WaterAid in Bangladesh plans to continue developing approaches to meeting the water and sanitation needs of disabled people, along with targeting assistance to other vulnerable and excluded communities such as tea estate and garment factory workers and street children.
Watch Who cares
Please note, you need Adobe Flash installed to view this video.
Many disabled people in Bangladesh have no choice but to beg for a living.
Featuring photographs of community-led total sanitation projects in rural Bangladesh, this
3D-style animation outlines the problems caused by poor sanitation, and ten steps that
communities can take to achieve "open defecation free status".
Watch animation
WaterAid is committed to addressing exclusion to ensure that the poorest and the most marginalized have access to safe water and sanitation.
Find out more