Improving Access to Water and Sanitation in Bangladesh Informal Settlement in Mombasa This proposed project will address poor water access, hygiene and environmental sanitation in urban informal settlements. The poor in the these settlements have continued to bear the brunt of the burden brought about by poor investment in the water sector and diminishing fresh water availability in the country due to a myriad of factors including climate change. The WHO/UNICEF JMP report (2012)  indicates that by 2010, 59% of the population in Kenya had access to an improved water source. However this comprised 52% in rural areas and 82% in urban. While in urban areas 82% of the population has access to an improved water source, only 45% has source piped into the premise and 37% sources water out of the premise. With regard to sanitation, the report shows that 32% of the population in rural Kenya used improved sanitation facilities while 21% used unimproved ones or didn’t have one. In urban areas, 32 % had access to ‘improved’ sanitation facilities and 48% shared. Furthermore, according to a World Bank report on water and sanitation(2012) , Kenya loses Sh27 billion each year due to poor sanitation, and 21 million Kenyans, more than half the population, use unsanitary or shared latrines while 5.6 million others have no latrines at all and are forced to defecate in the open. According to the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, the sanitation coverage for urban areas is 68% and for rural areas is 28% and about 50% of water borne illnesses is related to poor sanitation and hygiene.
On the other hand, Kenya is rapidly urbanizing and the proportion of the population in urban areas is expected to reach 50%  by 2030 although according to the GOK census, 2009, about 33%(12.5 m) of the population dwell in urban areas.  According to the UNDP indicator data base, 55% of the urban population live in informal settlements. Most of the urban areas, especially the smaller towns do not have well equipped infrastructure to support the growing population. Much as the statistics look good for urban areas, water supply is unequally distributed in the low income areas (slums and peri-urban settlements) per capita water coverage is very low and the demand far outstrips the supply. Due to lack of connectivity, many of the slums have survived with illegal connections on the outskirts of the settlements. Often the quality of these illegal connections is poor and prone to leakages hence contamination. Furthermore, this water ends up in the hands of private vendors who sell it exorbitantly (up to 20 ($0.23) shillings/20 litres of water). This is more than three or more times the tariff that is charged by the water companies.  
The options for solid waste disposal in Kenya are very limited, and many people resort to burning or dumping their rubbish in open areas or drains. Poor people have even more limited options as they cannot afford to use private collection agencies which have come in to supplement the overwhelmed city councils.  Many of the residents without latrines in the slums use “flying toilets” as a mode of faecal matter disposal.  This combined with reckless disposal of other forms of household waste results in clogged drains, littered and hazardous environment that exacerbates spread of diseases
Inadequate water coupled with poor sanitation has been responsible for the prevalence of water-borne or sanitation-related diseases that make up the majority of the morbidity rates in these areas. The most common instances of disease in include respiratory system infections and diarrhoea and intestinal worms.
Therefore the proposed project aims to improve water and sanitation accessibility in Bangladesh informal settlement located in Mombasa. The proposed program adopts a multi-dimensional approach which has the following aspects:  increased access to improved water supply through installation of water points providing portable water; improved sanitation through implementation of waterborne toilets; adoption of hygienic practices through hygiene promotion activities; environmental sanitation promotion through solid waste  management, particularly by recycling waste and; capacity building which will entail developing sustainable community project management structures. Delivery of this program will involve active participation of beneficiaries (Bangladesh community) in all stages of project cycle, selected beneficiaries representatives will also be taken through a need driven capacity building process to enhance program results.  Maji na Ufanisi project team which comprise of sociologists, accountants, engineers, environmentalists and support staff will be lead by the executive director (PhD).