Assessing availability and accessibility to safe drinking water in Southwest Bangladesh towards tracking SDG-Target 6.1.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Target 6.1 has been aimed to provide unhindered access to safe and affordable drinking water for all and has been monitored by UNICEF/WHO joint monitoring platform (JMP). Water must be free from pathogens and chemical contaminants at all times to meet the criteria of Safe Drinking Water set by SDG Target-6.1. This study was focused on identifying safe drinking water sources, assessing the availability, accessibility and affordability of safe drinking water by using the JMP drinking water ladder in Batiaghata Union, Khulna District, Bangladesh.  In this research, 72 households were surveyed by using a stratified simple random sampling technique to find information on availability, accessibility and affordability. To identify safe water sources, the concentration of arsenic, fecal coliform and total coliform were analyzed in the water samples collected from the water sources used by the surveyed household. The findings depict that 100% of the household has full access to and can avail and afford water from a source without any difficulties but only 42% of those drinking water sources are safe, thus rest 58% are unsafe. These unsafe drinking water sources are contaminated with fecal, but free from Arsenic contamination. The fecal contamination can possibly spread from pit latrines that are situated in closer proximity and can be by surface runoff coming from nearby cattle farms. According to the JMP drinking water ladder, 42% of households have access to safely managed drinking water services and around 58% of households have access to unimproved services.

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