Urban climate resilience, water and sanitation: improving multi-stakeholder collaboration in Dhaka, Bangladesh
This paper attempts to identify a strategy for improving collaboration between stakeholders working in Dhaka city to improve climate change resilience of the urban water and sanitation (WATSAN) sector, with a focus on the urban poor. The findings are derived from reviewing existing literature and consultations with 32 key informants and five focus group discussions (FGDs) representing both low-income groups as well as other stakeholders (NGOs, government, academics). The output of the analysis reveals that heavy rainfall, flooding, water logging and heatwaves are the major climatic impacts that affect the water supply, sanitation and health of slum dwellers. Also, women are more vulnerable than men due to the lack of water sup ply and adequate sanitation facilities particularly during floods and water-logging conditions. Around 35 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), along with government bodies and media, play key roles in improving the WATSAN facilities of the urban poor – which are currently inadequate.