Disability inclusive flood action plan and WASH in a Bangladesh community

This paper describes the pilot project disability inclusive disaster risk reduction, which integrates disaster risk and reduction (DRR) into inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming. Led by a local non-government organisation (NGO), this program was able to include people with disabilities (PWD) from the beginning, giving them the skills, confidence and assistive devices to support their participation in disaster preparedness planning. The project also acknowledged the need to involve the wider community. Guidance on the issues PWD face around WASH access was incorporated into existing community training on disaster risk reduction. As a result, the community jointly surveyed latrine locations, identified and installed appropriate tubewell technology, designed an accessible rescue boat and renovated homes and shelters to include accessible and flood-proofed water and sanitation infrastructure.

This case study is one of sixteen from the Towards Inclusive WASH series, supported by AusAID’s Innovations Fund.