Factors affecting slum sanitation projects in Dhaka City: learning from the dynamics of social-technological-governance systems

Abstract

Historically, the Government of Bangladesh has faced serious challenges in urban sanitation while public policy continuously bypasses questions related to the overall condition of the urban slums and their complex and filthy neighbourhood environment. Considering the diverse local settings of the urban slums, this paper attempts to explore the varied dynamics of ‘social-technological-governance’ (STG) systems from different categories of government (GO) and non-governmental organisation-managed slums where sanitation projects have been implemented. The analysis of STG systems not only uncovers different factors that affect sanitation projects but also offers a guideline that could address the overwhelming slum sanitation agenda in the context of metropolitan cities. The paper adopts a qualitative stance to explore the STG system and compare dynamics across the study areas. As is widely understood, local contextual issues are important in implementing sanitation projects and first-hand qualitative information has therefore been gathered and analysed to make sense of on-the-ground realities.