Sanitation
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Sanitation refers to
A range of sanitation technologies and approaches exists. Some examples are
Several sanitation "levels" are being used to compare sanitation service levels within countries or across countries.[8] The sanitation ladder defined by the Joint Monitoring Programme in 2016 starts at open defecation and moves upwards using the terms "unimproved", "limited", "basic", with the highest level being "safely managed".[8] This is particularly applicable to developing countries.
The Human Right to Water and Sanitation was recognized by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2010. Sanitation is a global development priority and the subject of Sustainable Development Goal 6.[9] The estimate in 2017 by JMP states that 4.5 billion people currently do not have safely managed sanitation.[9] Lack of access to sanitation has an impact not only on public health but also on human dignity and personal safety.
Definitions
There are some variations on the use of the term "sanitation" between countries and organizations. The World Health Organization defines the term "sanitation" as follows:
"Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and faeces. The word 'sanitation' also refers to the maintenance of hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection and wastewater disposal."[11]
Sanitation includes all four of these technical and non-technical systems: Excreta management systems, wastewater management systems (included here are
Another example of what is included in sanitation is found in the handbook by Sphere on "Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response" which describes minimum standards in four "key response sectors" in humanitarian response situations. One of them is "Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion" (WASH) and it includes the following areas: Hygiene promotion, water supply, excreta management, vector control, solid waste management and WASH in disease outbreaks and healthcare settings.[12]: 91
Despite the fact that sanitation includes wastewater treatment, the two terms are often used side by side as "sanitation and wastewater management".
Another definition is in the DFID guidance manual on water supply and sanitation programmes from 1998:[14]
"For the purposes of this manual, the word 'sanitation' alone is taken to mean the safe management of human excreta. It therefore includes both the 'hardware' (e.g. latrines and sewers) and the 'software' (regulation, hygiene promotion) needed to reduce faecal-oral disease transmission. It encompasses too the re-use and ultimate disposal of human excreta. The term environmental sanitation is used to cover the wider concept of controlling all the factors in the physical environment which may have deleterious impacts on human health and well-being. In developing countries, it normally includes drainage, solid waste management, and vector control, in addition to the activities covered by the definition of sanitation."
Sanitation can include personal sanitation and public hygiene. Personal sanitation work can include handling
Purposes
The overall purposes of sanitation are to provide a healthy living environment for everyone, to protect the natural resources (such as
The Human Right to Water and Sanitation was recognized by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2010.[16][17][18] It has been recognized in international law through human rights treaties, declarations and other standards. It is derived from the human right to an adequate standard of living.[19]
Effective sanitation systems provide barriers between excreta and humans in such a way as to break the
Sanitation infrastructure has to be adapted to several specific contexts including consumers' expectations and local resources available.[citation needed]
Sanitation technologies may involve centralized
Providing sanitation to people requires attention to the entire system, not just focusing on technical aspects such as the
Economic impacts
The benefits to society of managing human excreta are considerable, for public health as well as for the environment. As a rough estimate: For every US$1 spent on sanitation, the return to society is US$5.50.[23]: 2
For developing countries, the economic costs of inadequate sanitation is a huge concern. For example, according to a World Bank study, economic losses due to inadequate sanitation to The Indian economy are equivalent to 6.4% of its GDP.[24] Most of these are due to premature mortality, time lost in accessing, loss of productivity, additional costs for healthcare among others.[24] Inadequate sanitation also leads to loss from potential tourism revenue.[24] This study also found that impacts are disproportionately higher for the poor, women and children. Availability of toilet at home on the other hand, positively contributes to economic well-being of women as it leads to an increase in literacy and participation in labor force.[25]
Types and concepts (for excreta management)
The term sanitation is connected with various descriptors or adjectives to signify certain types of sanitation systems (which may deal only with
Basic sanitation
In 2017, JMP defined a new term: "basic sanitation service". This is defined as the use of improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with other households. A lower level of service is now called "limited sanitation service" which refers to use of improved sanitation facilities that are shared between two or more households.[9]
Container-based sanitation
Community-based sanitation
Community-based sanitation is related to decentralized wastewater treatment (DEWATS).[citation needed]
Community-led total sanitation
Dry sanitation
The term "dry sanitation" is not in widespread use and is not very well defined. It usually refers to a system that uses a type of dry toilet and no sewers to transport excreta. Often when people speak of "dry sanitation" they mean a sanitation system that uses urine-diverting dry toilet (UDDTs).[30][31]
Ecological sanitation
Emergency sanitation
Environmental sanitation
Environmental sanitation encompasses the control of environmental factors that are connected to
Fecal sludge management
Improved and unimproved sanitation
Lack of sanitation
Lack of sanitation refers to the absence of sanitation. In practical terms it usually means lack of toilets or lack of hygienic toilets that anybody would want to use voluntarily. The result of lack of sanitation is usually open defecation (and open urination but this is of less concern) with associated serious public health issues.[36] It is estimated that 2.4 billion people still lacked improved sanitation facilities including 660 million people who lack access to safe drinking water as of 2015.[37][38]
Onsite sanitation or non-sewered sanitation system
Onsite sanitation (or on-site sanitation) is defined as "a sanitation system in which excreta and wastewater are collected and stored or treated on the plot where they are generated".
A related term is a decentralized wastewater system which refers in particular to the wastewater part of on-site sanitation. Similarly, an onsite sewage facility can treat the wastewater generated locally.[citation needed]
The global methane emissions from NSSS in 2020 was estimated to as 377 Mt
Safely managed sanitation
Safely managed sanitation is the highest level of household sanitation envisioned by the Sustainable Development Goal Number 6.[41] It is measured under the Sustainable Development Goal 6.2, Indicator 6.2.1, as the "Proportion of population using (a) safely managed sanitation services and (b) a hand-washing facility with soap and water".[42][9] The current value in the 2017 baseline estimate by JMP is that 4.5 billion people currently do not have safely managed sanitation.[9]
Safely managed sanitation is defined as an improved sanitation facility which is not shared with other households, and where the excreta produced is either treated and disposed in situ, stored temporarily and then emptied and transported to treatment off-site, or transported through a sewer with wastewater and then treated off-site.[42] In other words, safely managed sanitation is a basic sanitation service where in addition excreta are safely disposed of in situ or transported and treated offsite.[9]
Sustainable sanitation
Other types, concepts and systems
Wastewater management
Wastewater management consists of collection,
Sanitation systems in urban areas of developed countries usually consist of the collection of wastewater in gravity driven sewers, its treatment in wastewater treatment plants for reuse or disposal in rivers, lakes or the sea.[citation needed]
In
Stormwater drainage
Sewers are either combined with storm drains or separated from them as sanitary sewers. Combined sewers are usually found in the central, older parts or urban areas. Heavy rainfall and inadequate maintenance can lead to combined sewer overflows or sanitary sewer overflows, i.e., more or less diluted raw sewage being discharged into the environment. Industries often discharge wastewater into municipal sewers, which can complicate wastewater treatment unless industries pre-treat their discharges.[45]
Solid waste disposal
Disposal of
For incineration options, the release of
Food safety
Sanitation within the food industry means the adequate treatment of food-contact surfaces by a process that is effective in destroying vegetative cells of
In the food and
Hygiene promotion
In many settings, provision of sanitation facilities alone does not guarantee good health of the population. Studies have suggested that the impact of hygiene practices have as great an impact on sanitation related diseases as the actual provision of sanitation facilities. Hygiene promotion is therefore an important part of sanitation and is usually key in maintaining good health.[50]
Hygiene promotion is a planned approach of enabling people to act and change their behavior in an order to reduce and/or prevent incidences of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)[51] related diseases. It usually involves a participatory approach of engaging people to take responsibility of WASH services and infrastructure including its operation and maintenance. The three key elements of promoting hygiene are; mutual sharing of information and knowledge, the mobilization of affected communities and the provision of essential material and facilities.[12]
Health aspects
The WHO has investigated which proportion of death and disease worldwide can be attributed to insufficient WASH services. In their analysis they focus on the following four health outcomes:
Environmental aspects
Indicator organisms
When analyzing environmental samples, various types of
Climate change
Global mechanisms
Sustainable Development Goal Number 6
In the year 2016, the Sustainable Development Goals replaced the Millennium Development Goals. Sanitation is a global development priority and included Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6).[9] The target is about "clean water and sanitation for all" by 2030.[53] It is estimated that 660 million people still lacked access to safe drinking water as of 2015.[37][38]
Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the fight for clean water and sanitation is more important than ever. Handwashing is one of the most common prevention methods for Coronavirus, yet two out of five people do not have access to a hand-washing station.[54]
Millennium Development Goal Number 7 until 2015
The
In December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2008 "The International Year of Sanitation", in recognition of the slow progress being made towards the MDGs sanitation target.[55]
There are numerous reasons for this gap. A major one is that sanitation is rarely given political attention received by other topics despite its key importance. Sanitation is not high on the international development agenda, and projects such as those relating to water supply projects are emphasised.[56]
The
- Between 1990 and 2015, open defecation rates have decreased from 38% to 25% globally. Just under one billion people (946 million) still practise open defecation worldwide in 2015.
- 82% of the global urban population, and 51% of the rural population is using improved sanitation facilities in 2015, as per the JMP definition of "improved sanitation".[57]
Initiatives to promote sanitation
In 2011 the
The latest innovations in the field of public health sanitation, currently in the testing phase, comprise - use of 'locally produced alcohol-based hand rub'; 'novel latrine improvement'; and 'container-based sanitation'. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the national public health agency of the United States has recognized the stated three initiatives.
Capacity development
Capacity development is regarded as an important mechanism to achieve progress in the sanitation sector.[60] For example, in India the Sanitation Capacity Building platform (SCBP) was designed to "support and build the capacity of town/cities to plan and implement decentralized sanitation solutions" with funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2015 to 2022.[61][62] Results from this project showed that capacity development best happens on the job and in a learning organization culture.[63] In a government capacity development initiative, it is critical to have an enabling policy and program funding to translate capacity development input into program and infrastructure outputs. Capacity development aims to empower staff and institutions, develop a learning strategy, learning content and training modules, as well as strengthened partnerships and institutions of learning.[63] The Capacity Development Effectiveness Ladder Framework (CDEL) identifies five critical steps for capacity development interventions: Developing original learning content, partnerships for learning and outreach, learning strategy, visioning change and designing solutions, contribution to capacity development discourse.[63][64]
Costs
A study was carried out in 2018 to compare the lifecycle costs of full sanitation chain systems in developing cities of Africa and Asia. It found that conventional sewer systems are in most cases the most expensive sanitation options, followed, in order of cost, by sanitation systems comprising
Some grassroots organizations have trialled community-managed toilet blocks whose construction and maintenance costs can be covered by households. One study of Mumbai informal settlements found that US$1.58 per adult would be sufficient for construction, and less than US$1/household/month would be sufficient for maintenance.[66]
History
Major human settlements could initially develop only where fresh surface water was plentiful, such as near rivers or
The
By country
Society and culture
There is a vast number of professions that are involved in the field of sanitation, for example on the technical and operations side:
See also
- List of abbreviations used in sanitation
- List of countries by proportion of the population using improved sanitation facilities
- List of water supply and sanitation by country
- Environmental health
- Water pollution
- Water security
- Self-supply of water and sanitation
- Sustainable Sanitation Alliance
- World Toilet Day
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External links
- Media related to Sanitation at Wikimedia Commons
- Sustainable Sanitation Alliance
- Sanitation and Wastewater Atlas of Africa