Electricity access in urban slum households of Bangladesh: A case of Dhaka

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is one of the fastest growing cities in Southern Asia, having population of more than 13 million, and is expected to accommodate more than 20 million by 2025. This growth has been accompanied by the growth of urban slums and the subsequent challenges to access basic urban services like water, sanitation, clean energy, and transport for the urban poor. Despite its importance for basic survival, electricity supply is not recognized as a basic urban service, as a result of which, the poverty alleviation and basic infrastructure provision programs have not addressed this issue completely. On the basis of a stakeholder interaction approach, following a set of logically sequenced questions to assess the availability, accessibility, affordability, reliability and continuity of usage of electricity, this study assesses the current status of electricity access in an urban poor area of Dhaka and identifies barriers to electricity access from both demand and supply side. Barriers specific recommendations are also suggested based on the experiences from field visit and the best practices outside Bangladesh are also identified.