The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a $370 million financing to improve sanitation and solid waste management services, reducing water pollution and restoring rivers and canals in Dhaka and the surrounding areas.
The Metro Dhaka Water Security and Resilience Program will strengthen local and national institutions’ capacity to reduce water pollution in the greater Dhaka, which generates about half of the country’s formal employment and one-third of its GDP.
In order to assist local corporations and the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) in implementing quantifiable improvements on the ground, the program implements a results-based framework. According to a World Bank press release, it would prioritize communities most impacted by pollution and service shortages by providing 550,000 people with securely managed sanitation services and 500,000 people with better solid waste management services.
“Water bodies are the lifeline for millions of people in greater Dhaka. But rapid, unplanned urbanization and industrial growth have outpaced the city’s capacity to manage wastewater and pollution, impacting public health, environment, and the economy,” said Jean Pesme, World Bank Division Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.
“This program will help building the institutional foundations needed to reduce pollution and restore the health of Dhaka’s rivers and canals over time.”
Dhaka has serious problems with water pollution and wastewater. Just 20% of residents have connected to piped sewer systems, and only 2% use practical fecal sludge management.
The interconnected rivers in Dhaka receive more than 80% of the city’s untreated sewage and effluent. The pollution in Dhaka has gotten worse as more than half of its canals have vanished or are blocked.
The operation employs a comprehensive strategy that involves the public and private sectors in addition to city corporations in order to address these issues. By lowering pollution and regaining flow capacity, it will revitalize the rivers and canals surrounding Dhaka, enhance service delivery, and fortify the legal system.
The release said Industrial pollution is also acute: about 80% of the export-oriented garments factories are in Dhaka and more than 7,000 factories release an estimated 2,400 million liters of untreated wastewater into waterways daily creating skin, diarrheal diseases and neurological conditions.
The program will mobilize private sector participation, especially industries in and around Dhaka to deploy their expertise and capital to scale-up industrial effluent treatment and water reuse to optimize water efficiency and reduce pollution.
“The program is part of a multi-phase, long-term engagement supporting Bangladesh’s broader water security and resilience agenda,” said Harsh Goyal, World Bank Senior Water Supply and Sanitation Specialist and Task Team Leader of the project.
“This phase will prioritize reducing pollution discharge into Dhaka’s water bodies, strengthening institutional and regulatory monitoring systems including a comprehensive water quality index for Dhaka’s rivers, establishing digital real-time pollution monitoring, and developing integrated river restoration plans for four major Dhaka Rivers.”
The program will cover the selected areas in Dhaka and Narayanganj in the first phase. It will help improve primary waste collection coverage—prioritizing underserved communities near major canals and rivers—and upgrade recycling systems.
In order to prevent the disposal of solid waste, direct sewage discharge into drainage networks, and industrial effluent discharge into rivers and canals, it will also implement community-led awareness campaigns and enforce pollution control laws.
Being one of the first development partners to assist Bangladesh, the World Bank has given the nation more than $46 billion in grants, interest-free loans, and concessional credits since its independence. It also has more than $12 billion committed to 43 projects.
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