At the national level, 92.32 per cent of households now have access to improved toilet facilities while members of 0.69 per cent of houses still need to depend on open defecation.
The data was found through an analysis of the preliminary report of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2022 published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in June.
HIES says that considerable improvement has happened in 2022 as 90.91 per cent of households in rural areas and 95.31 per cent of households in urban areas now have access to improved toilet facilities.
It says that there are three types of toilet facilities in the country — improved, unimproved and open defecation.
Improved toilet facilities cover flash removal through the pipe to the sewer system, flash and hold in a safe tank, flash and hold in a safe pit (pit latrine), unknown where it is removed by flash, ventilated improved pit latrine, pit latrine with slab and composting toilet.
Unimproved toilet facilities include flash removal in an open drain, bucket, open or hanging latrine, and others; and open defecation means no latrine but resorting to bush or field.
Currently, 6.99 per cent have access to unimproved toilet facilities, open defecation has a small share at 0.69 per cent in 2022, while 25.61 per cent of households used sanitary latrines, 18.09 per cent used pucca (water sealed) and 17.67 per cent used pucca (not water sealed) in 2016.
These three types of toilets combined account for 92.32 per cent in 2022 as against 61.37 per cent and 51.05 per cent in 2016 and 2010, respectively, indicating considerable improvement.
In rural areas, access to improved toilet facilities stands at 53.27 per cent, up from 41.87 per cent between 2010 and 2016. Unimproved toilet facilities decreased to 42.98 per cent from 52.39 per cent.
From 2010 to 2016, open space facility has slightly fallen to 3.75 per cent from 5.73 per cent in rural areas.
Given the data of HIES 2022, all the hygienic excreta disposal facility increased which indicate significant improvement in the sanitation system of the country, it claimed.
Meanwhile, there exists urban-rural variation in access to toilet facilities.
In the urban areas, 82.12 per cent households had access to improved and 76.12 per cent unimproved toilet facilities in 2016 and 2010, respectively. In 2022, the use of unimproved toilet facilities saw a sharp decrease to 4.59 per cent.
