Engagement of private sector for faecal sludge management

On 26th October, Jhenaidah Municipality and Aid Foundation signed an agreement in order to provide safe, affordable and inclusive city wide Faecal Sludge Management services to serve more than 1,50,000 people of Jhenaidah city.

Saidul Karim Mintu, Honorable Mayor of Jhenaidah Municipality, and Tariqul Islam Palash, Founder & Chief Executive of AID Foundation signed the contract. City Councilors & officers of Jhenaidah Municipality and Rajeev Munankami, FSM Programme Team Leader, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation was present at the ceremony.

Under this agreement AID Foundation will collect, empty and transport faecal sludge (FS) within Municipality and also operate & maintain faecal sludge treatment plant (FSTP) whereain Municipality will monitor and ensure the service quality. Under the project, a customer database, and a GIS based integrated information system has also been introduced, to further enable smoother FSM service operations.

Through the provision of safe emptying, transportation and treatment of faecal sludge, Jhenaidah Municipality is committed to provide safe sanitation for all city dwellers by 2023, in line with SDG Goal 6, “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. Jhenaidah Municipality has also constructed a Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP) with the capacity of 40m3/day, trained emptiers on occupational safety and health (OSH), developed on-line customer database, and GIS mapping system. Recently, for the first time in the history of South Asia, FSM tax has been introduced in a city (Jhenaidah) as well.