Amnesty International on Thursday released Left Behind in the Storm, a report showing that Bangladesh is failing to ensure equal access to safe water and sanitation for Dalit women sanitation workers in Khulna and Satkhira as climate impacts intensify. The report cited April–June field interviews with 22 workers, site visits to reverse-osmosis points and tube wells, and meetings with local officials and clinicians.
The rights group said women are traveling long distances to purchase treated water at prices that consume a significant share of low incomes, while nearby ponds and many wells remain contaminated, and household latrines are fragile, unlit, and frequently flooded. Amnesty International linked these conditions to obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which requires water to be available, physically and economically accessible, acceptable, and safe without discrimination. ICESCR Articles 11 and 12 require sufficient, continuous, and affordable household water.
The organization also invoked the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), noting that “descent” includes caste and requires proactive measures where neutral programs entrench unequal outcomes. ICERD General Recommendations 29 and 32 mandate special measures for equality in fact. Since the affected group is overwhelmingly women, Amnesty International grounded additional duties in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) concerning access to water, sanitation, and menstrual hygiene as determinants of health. CEDAW Article 12 and General Recommendation 24 require the removal of sex-linked barriers.
Deputy Director Research for South Asia at Amnesty International Isabelle Lassée said, “Caste and gender-based discrimination, lack of inclusive infrastructure, economic marginalization, and climate vulnerability have converged to entrench cycles of exclusion and indignity.”
The report highlighted that Dalit women are often excluded from local Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) committees and from decisions regarding the placement of reverse-osmosis units, tube wells, and storage tanks. It also criticizes the lack of data broken down by caste and gender in water and sanitation monitoring, describing this gap as a major obstacle to achieving substantive equality.
Amnesty International further noted that post-cyclone conditions in shelters, where toilets are sometimes locked or segregated, raise concerns of discrimination when essential services are denied or made unsafe for vulnerable groups. The organization characterized such practices as violations of the obligation under international law to guarantee equal access to basic services that protect health and dignity during emergencies.
These findings emerge as Bangladesh faces broader human rights and governance challenges under its interim administration. This transitional uncertainty compounds the state’s difficulty in implementing obligations under ICESCR, ICERD, and CEDAW to protect marginalized groups such as Dalit women sanitation workers. Resource constraints have further deepened inequalities in access to social and economic rights. Foreign aid cutbacks have also worsened the education crisis in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps, leaving more than 437,000 school-age children without consistent access to learning facilities. Funding shortages and governance gaps continue to marginalize vulnerable populations, paralleling the exclusion Amnesty identifies in water and sanitation access.
The rights group called for the installation of safe water points within or near Dalit colonies, the adoption of affordable lifeline tariffs, and the inclusion of solar or battery backup systems for treatment plants. The organization also urged the government to fund elevated, lockable latrines with adequate lighting, establish complaint mechanisms, and guarantee reserved seats for Dalit women on WASH committees. It emphasized the need for transparent siting criteria and publicly available beneficiary lists to ensure that accessibility, affordability, privacy, and participation are fully integrated into program design.
