Public investment in Bangladesh’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector has fallen 40 per cent over three years, raising concerns over progress on Sustainable Development Goal 6 and climate resilience, a national civil society network said in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The warning was issued at a pre-budget briefing organised by the Network of WASH Networks, where a policy analysis prepared by WaterAid Bangladesh and the Power and Participation Research Centre was presented by Hossain Zillur Rahman and Mohammad Abdul Wazed.
Speaker said, the annual development programme (ADP) allocations for WASH declined from Tk18,728 crore in FY2022–23 to Tk14,981 crore in FY2023–24, Tk11,617 crore in FY2024–25 and Tk10,901 crore in FY2025–26, showing a sustained downward trend despite overall growth in development spending.
The declining investment reflects a mismatch between national development priorities and spending on public health, local government services and water infrastructure, Hossain Zillur Rahman said.
WaterAid Bangladesh’s Head of Policy Advocacy Fayazuddin Ahmad said 98 per cent of the population uses improved water sources, but only 55 per cent have access to safely managed drinking water, according to preliminary MICS 2025 data.
Safely managed water refers to drinking water available on premises, available when needed and free from chemical and microbial contamination.
Access disparities remain wide, with urban coverage at 71 per cent compared with 48 per cent in rural areas, driven by financing gaps and contamination risks, including arsenic in rural tube wells.
The briefing highlighted sharp spatial disparities in WASH spending, with about two-thirds of development allocations concentrated in urban areas, municipalities and Water Supply and Sewerage Authorities.
Within this structure, four WASAs account for 42.6 per cent of urban WASH allocation, or Tk3,517 crore, while Dhaka WASA alone absorbs nearly 29 per cent of the national WASH budget, exceeding Tk3,140 crore.
Dhaka North and Gazipur together receive more than 62 per cent of city corporation allocations, while Rajshahi, Rangpur, Cumilla, Sylhet and Dhaka South received no allocation in FY2025–26.
Hard-to-reach regions – including chars, haors, coastal belts and hill districts – receive 10.22 per cent of total WASH funding, where open defecation remains 2–3 per cent against a national average of 2 per cent.
Safe faecal sludge management remains severely underdeveloped, at 2–5 per cent in urban areas and zero in rural Bangladesh, due to persistent underinvestment, the briefing said.
International Water Association representative Mohammad Zobair Hasan said current spending patterns undermine the National Adaptation Plan 2023–2050 amid rising climate risks, including flooding, sea-level rise and groundwater depletion.
He cited repeated latrine overflow in coastal areas during floods and groundwater stress in the Barind region caused by unregulated submersible pumping, intensive irrigation and weak recharge systems.
The network called for aligning WASH budget growth with overall ADP expansion, reallocating resources to rural and climate-vulnerable areas, and introducing a monthly Tk300–Tk500 WASH allowance for ultra-poor households through family or health cards.
It also proposed WASH blocks in schools and madrassas with gender-segregated toilets and sanitary vending machines, and conversion of canal-digging programmes into climate-resilient surface water storage systems.
Mohammad Abdul Wazed said infrastructure expansion must be matched with stronger local government capacity, digital monitoring tools and ring-fenced operational funding to ensure long-term service delivery.
The briefing was attended by representatives of the Faecal Sludge Management Network, Bangladesh Women’s Water Alliance, Coalition of the Urban Poor, Bangladesh WASH Alliance Network, Freshwater Action Network South Asia and Equity Watch Platform.
Network of WASH Networks is a forum of 10 platforms working on sustainability.
