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Caught in cycle
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discrimination, where children of sanitation workers often struggle to escape the vicious cycle of limited opportunities and sanitation work, it said.
The most undesirable and high-risk jobs are typically subcontracted to temporary, informal workers despite a substantial formal and permanent sanitation workforce being present in Bangladesh, with basic working conditions protected by law, the report highlighted.
“Furthermore, alcoholism and drug addiction to evade the working conditions are common among some sanitation workers,” it said.
It also said several case examples found reports of sanitation workers maintaining a low profile and hiding their occupation from their communities to protect their families’ safety and well-being.
The report, which was jointly authored by the International Labour Organization, WaterAid, World Bank, and WHO, features the plight and dehumanising working conditions of sanitation workers across nine lower and middle-income group countries -- India, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda.
While talking to Bangladesh Horijon Oikya Parishad, it was found that dozens of sewer cleaners in Bangladesh die every year as they dive into pools of human waste without any safety equipment. They use a stick or just their bare hands to clear blockages or septic tanks.
Members of the Parishad said the cleaners hold their breaths when they dive through human waste and must deal with poisonous fumes emitted by the sewage. The sewerage lines are acidic and poisonous due to rotten filth. Most of the time, they buy and drink some local liquor before starting work in the sewer.
Nirmal Chandra Das, general secretary of the Parishad, said the cleaners do not have any land of their own and are not even able to rent homes for themselves. They live in “colonies”, which are in terrible states, scattered across the city. Recently, there was an attempt by some quarters to evict the workers from one of the colonies in Old Dhaka.
“Discrimination [against them] is increasing by the day,” he said.
Around 15 lakh people from the Horijon community are in Bangladesh and most of them are employed in this profession.
They said the job is basically “inherited” from their forefathers and they have no other work skills which compels them to remain in this profession.
The report said sanitation workers across the developing world often suffer because of weak legal protection and a lack of enforcement of existing rules.
The numerous operational activities along the sanitation chain -- emptying and conveying faecal sludge, sewer maintenance, treatment, and end use/disposal -- have often been invisible or at least disregarded in regulatory frameworks, it emphasised.
“Though it is said to be a formal job, it is still dominated by the people who are not involved in any formal job. Still, they work as a day-labourers and as they are out of any formal sector, they are deprived of basic rights that are ensured by labour laws. The dangerous part is that the workers in this sector still work without any safety equipment,” Riad Arif, communication officer of OSHE, told The Daily Star.
The report said sanitation workers who are not protected by adequate health and safety measures risk injury, infection, disease, mental health issues, and even death.
The reported physical and medical conditions directly associated with sanitation work include headaches, dizziness, fever, fatigue, asthma, gastroenteritis, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, cryptosporidiosis, schistosomiasis, eye and skin burn and other skin irritation, musculoskeletal disorders (including back pain), puncture wounds and cuts, blunt force, and trauma.
According to the WHO/Unicef (2019) Progress report on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2017, an estimated 85.6 million people in Bangladesh do not have a decent toilet of their own.
It also said since 2000, the number of people with a decent toilet have increased by 131 percent.
The report said significant progress has been made since 2000 in ending open defecation, but only 48 percent of the population have access to basic sanitation.

Girl dies, several feared missing as French river bridge collapses
Afp, Toulouse
A 15-year-old girl was killed after a suspension bridge over a river in southwest France collapsed yesterday, causing a car, a truck and possibly a third vehicle to plunge into the water, local authorities said.
Four people were rescued but several others were feared missing after the collapse of the bridge linking the towns of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn and Bessieres, 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the city of Toulouse, said fire service and local security chief Etienne Guyot.
TV images showed a car bonnet sticking out of the fast-flowing waters of the Tarn river and emergency service helicopters circling overhead.
The body of the dead girl was pulled from the water, Toulouse prosecutor Dominique Alzeari said at the scene. Her mother was rescued by onlookers.
Over 60 rescue workers, including divers, and 40 police were taking part in the search for survivors, Guyot told reporters, adding there were “probably several missing”.
Among those feared missing was the truck driver and the driver of a potential third vehicle, he said, adding that witnesses had reported seeing a van on the bridge.
The bridge which had a load limit of 19 tonnes, dated to the 1930s, he said, and was “regularly checked”.
The mayor of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn Eric Oget described it as a “very important crossing point” for people going to work in Toulouse on the other side of the river.
Many pedestrians, including schoolgoers, also used the bridge, he said, describing the accident as a “real trauma”.