REACH Dhaka WASH Household Survey, 2017-2018

The REACH Dhaka WASH Household Survey was conducted between December 2017 and February 2018 to collect quantitative data on various indicators of multidimensional poverty, the state of drinking water services and sanitation facilities, household expenditures, illnesses in the past year and priority concerns for development. The survey was carried out along a 25km stretch of river (Turag and Tongi-Khal) in northern Dhaka covering low income settlements within 1km of the riverbank. The survey was administered to 1826 households randomly selected from 10 communities. The survey was administered in Bangla through an electronic form developed in ONA (https://ona.io/), and was conducted by 15 trained local enumerators.

REACH is a global research programme to improve water security for the poor by delivering world-class science that transforms policy and practice. Living in poverty often means a struggle for water security. Rapid urban growth, unregulated pollution from industry, extreme floods and droughts, lack of reliable and safe drinking water, and increasing damage to water ecosystems threaten economies and undermine the lives of the poor. Improving water security is an important pathway to sustainable growth and poverty reduction. However, better evidence is needed to guide institutional and infrastructure investments which unlock growth opportunities and help people move out of poverty. The REACH programme will improve water security for over ten million poor people by: -generating new evidence on water security through an innovative, interdisciplinary, risk-based approach -establishing science, practitioner and enterprise partnerships to ground research in approaches that will benefit the poor building capacity and networks for the next generation of water managers and scientists in Africa and South Asia. REACH is a nine-year programme (2015-2024) led by Oxford University with international consortium of partners and funded with UK Aid Direct from the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.