Dhaka: The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a $370 million financing package aimed at improving sanitation and solid waste management services in Dhaka and its surrounding areas, reducing water pollution, and restoring the city’s rivers and canals.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the Metro Dhaka Water Security and Resilience Program will enhance the capacity of local and national institutions to tackle water pollution in greater Dhaka, a region that contributes significantly to the country’s economy by generating about half of its formal employment and one-third of its GDP. The initiative introduces a results-based system to assist city corporations and the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) in delivering tangible improvements. It promises to provide sanitation services to 550,000 people and improved solid waste management services to 500,000 people, focusing on communities most affected by pollution and service deficiencies, as highlighted by a World Bank press release.
The program comes in response to severe wastewater and water pollution challenges in Dhaka, where only about 20 percent of residents are connected to a piped sewer system, and just 2 percent utilize functional fecal sludge management systems. Over 80 percent of untreated wastewater is discharged into the city’s waterways, with more than half of Dhaka’s canals either disappearing or clogged, further exacerbating pollution.
To address these issues, the program takes a comprehensive approach involving public and private sectors and city corporations. It aims to improve service delivery, strengthen the regulatory framework, and revive the rivers and canals by reducing pollution and restoring their flow capacity. Industrial pollution is also a critical focus, with about 80% of export-oriented garment factories in Dhaka releasing an estimated 2,400 million liters of untreated wastewater into waterways daily.
The program will encourage private sector participation, particularly from industries around Dhaka, to enhance industrial effluent treatment and water reuse, optimizing water efficiency and reducing pollution. Harsh Goyal, World Bank Senior Water Supply and Sanitation Specialist, emphasized that this phase will prioritize reducing pollution discharge into Dhaka’s water bodies and strengthening institutional and regulatory monitoring systems.
Initially, the program will cover selected areas in Dhaka and Narayanganj, aimed at improving waste collection and recycling systems while undertaking community-led awareness campaigns and pollution-control enforcement. The World Bank has been a long-term development partner for Bangladesh, committing over $46 billion in various financial supports since the country’s independence and maintaining ongoing commitments over $12 billion across 43 projects.