GIS MAPPING FOR PROVIDING SAFE WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION SERVICES

Safe water supply and sanitation facilities are a fundamental need. Without safe water and sanitation facilities humans are subject to various health stressors, and those in rural areas are at particular risk. The geographical representation of remote, vulnerable or disaster prone areas can be an important tool for the decision makers to help identify disadvantaged areas and help inform where interventions are needed.

A significant number of people in of Bangladesh do not have access to safe drinking water or sanitation services and face related health problems. Those who live in rural areas are especially affected. Too much or too little water creates different health problems, the severity of which is not equal for a given geographical boundary. In a certain area the impact is different depending on factors like poverty, income, education, road access, etc. That’s why an understandable vulnerability map is essential for the identification of suitable water supply and provision of sanitation technology for a particular area.

Community participation is helpful for developing effective GIS maps. In this project a social-technical approach was taken for preparing the maps. A mixed group of community people were invited from localities within the project area project to identify water supply and sanitation vulnerabilities. A union boundary map was supplied to the community, and a facilitator assisted the local people in understanding the union map. Community members marked the vulnerabilities and identified the impacts of water supply and sanitation, and a GPS was used to georeference the map. The community prepared map and data were digitized by QGIS to generate a final map. Local people emphasize to identify the water supply and sanitation problem for their area, because that problem is one of the major problems for them during disaster and as an impact of climate change.

A clear positive result was observed for following the community-developed GIS map. The installation places were selected properly and community people are getting the benefits of their mapping in local area. Their selected places are free from disaster and climate related impacts. That’s why those climate resilient WATSAN technologies provide good heath for the hard to reach community.