Urban water utilities face complex challenges in extending services to low-income communities (LICs). This Practice Note looks at DWASA’s evolving approach to serving LICs in Dhaka, one of the world’s fastest growing cities.

Women and girls living in the low-income communities of Dhaka lack the services and support required to practice safe menstrual hygiene. This Practice Note looks at a campaign that aimed to overcome the barriers to change.

What is this guide?

The guide provides an introduction to urban WASH programming: how to design and implement a pro-poor urban water, sanitation and hygiene programme. The recommendations are drawn primarily from WSUP’s extensive experience in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is primarily designed for WASH professionals working in governments, development agencies, funding agencies or civil society organisations. It will also be useful for professionals working for service providers including water utilities, local authorities and in the private sector.

Avaliar o custo de diferentes soluções de saneamento, é um desafio chave do planeamento urbano. Esta Nota Prática descreve uma ferramenta de análise financeira em Excel que calcula os custos de diferentes opções para se conseguir 100% de acesso ao saneamento em áreas de baixo rendimento e sem baixo rendimento.

Evaluer de façon fiable le coût des différentes options d’assainissement est un défi essentiel pour la planification urbaine. Cette Note Pratique décrit un outil d’analyse financière fiable sous Excel qui calcule les coûts de différentes options pour atteindre un taux d’accès de 100% pour l’assainissement dans les zones à faible revenu ou non les zones qui ne sont pas à faible revenu.

Reliably assessing the cost of different sanitation solutions is a key urban planning challenge. This Practice Note describes an Excel-based financial analysis tool which generates reliable costings of different options for achieving 100% sanitation access across low-income and non-low-income areas.

Plans for sanitation improvements often stall at an early stage due to the challenge of costing different sanitation options, leaving low-income communities without improved sanitation. To address this need, WSUP, IWA and local partners have developed a financial tool which helps planners get a preliminary understanding of the affordability of different sanitation improvement strategies.

This Topic Brief describes the development of the prototype tool, how it works, its practical application in two wards of Dhaka and the results it produced. Ways in which the tool could be improved are noted, and the Topic Brief ends with a discussion of the tool’s potential wider applications.