The task force at its last meeting chaired by Secretary of the Local Government Division Safar Raj Hossain formed the committee headed by Professor Dr Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) to review the real field level progress of the national sanitation coverage.

The committee is formed with representations from the World Bank, UNICEF, DFID, DANIDA and civil society bodies, NGOs and the media, officials told BSS here on Thursday.

The national target of achieving 100 percent sanitation coverage by the year 2010 was declared in 2003 when a UNICEF baseline survey found a very low coverage of sanitation with only 33 percent while 45 percent were open or hanging latrines.

UNICEF officials informed the task force meeting held on June 6 that a BBS-UNICEF joint sample had found Bangladesh was able to cut down the number of open or hanging latrines to only 7 percent of total sanitation coverage throughout the country.

The Task Force members -- Professor Mujibur Rahman, Professor Dr Firoze Ahmed of BUET, Dr Abdul Motaleb of World Bank and Quamrul Islam Chowdhury of FEJB --described it as a success of the people of Bangladesh and suggested formation of an independent committee to rigorously monitor and evaluate the progress in the sanitation sector.

They also stressed the need for carrying out a detailed survey built on the experience of the baseline survey and in conformity with the national sanitation strategy to remove confusion about the progress achieved so far.

They also urged for intensifying the national sanitation campaign to help achieve the UN declared Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the country.

While visiting a number of spots here on Thursday, committee chair Prof Mujibur Rahman called for mounting mobilisation of all-out efforts to sustain the sanitation coverage in the city including the vulnerable slum areas specially for ensuring development of sanitation habit among the people.

Local Task Force member Abdul Karim Pathan, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Sanitary Inspector Jashimuddin and PSTC Project Coordinator Santi Ranjan Sarker told newsmen that the DCC with supports from Plan Bangladesh and PSTC were now mobilising the community people under the decentralised urban total sanitation project.

They also informed that the undertaken programmes in three city wards -- 75, 77 and 85 -- had installed 100 percent sanitary latrines in the areas.