![Sanitation Value Chain](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Sanitation_Value_Chain.jpg)
Sanitation refers to
public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
conditions related to clean
drinking water
Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...
and treatment and disposal of
human excreta
Human waste (or human excreta) refers to the waste products of the human digestive system, menses, and human metabolism including urine and faeces. As part of a sanitation system that is in place, human waste is collected, transported, treated a ...
and
sewage
Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...
.
Preventing human contact with
feces
Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...
is part of sanitation, as is
hand washing
Hand washing (or handwashing), also known as hand hygiene, is the act of cleaning one's hands with soap, soap or handwash and water to remove viruses/bacteria/microorganisms, dirt, grease, or other harmful and unwanted substances stuck to the ...
with soap. Sanitation systems aim to protect human health by providing a clean environment that will stop the
transmission of disease
In medicine, public health, and biology, transmission is the passing of a pathogen causing Infectious disease, communicable disease from an infected host (biology), host individual or group to a particular individual or group, regardless of wheth ...
, especially through the
fecal–oral route
The fecal–oral route (also called the oral–fecal route or orofecal route) describes a particular route of transmission of a disease wherein pathogens in fecal particles pass from one person to the mouth of another person. Main causes of fecal ...
.
[SuSanA (2008)]
Towards more sustainable sanitation solutions
Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) For example,
diarrhea
Diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin wi ...
, a main cause of
malnutrition
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...
and
stunted growth
Stunted growth is a reduced growth rate in human development. It is a primary manifestation of malnutrition (or more precisely undernutrition) and recurrent infections, such as diarrhea and helminthiasis, in early childhood and even before birth, ...
in children, can be reduced through adequate sanitation. There are many other diseases which are easily transmitted in communities that have low levels of sanitation, such as
ascariasis
Ascariasis is a disease caused by the parasitic roundworm ''Ascaris lumbricoides''. Infections have no symptoms in more than 85% of cases, especially if the number of worms is small. Symptoms increase with the number of worms present and may in ...
(a type of intestinal worm infection or
helminthiasis
Helminthiasis, also known as worm infection, is any macroparasitic disease of humans and other animals in which a part of the body is infected with parasitic worms, known as helminths. There are numerous species of these parasites, which are br ...
),
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
,
hepatitis
Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pa ...
,
polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...
,
schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever, is a disease caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes. The urinary tract or the intestines may be infected. Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody s ...
, and
trachoma
Trachoma is an infectious disease caused by bacterium ''Chlamydia trachomatis''. The infection causes a roughening of the inner surface of the eyelids. This roughening can lead to pain in the eyes, breakdown of the outer surface or cornea of ...
, to name just a few.
A range of sanitation technologies and approaches exists. Some examples are
community-led total sanitation
Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is an approach used mainly in developing countries to improve sanitation and hygiene practices in a community. The approach tries to achieve behavior change in mainly rural people by a process of "triggering ...
,
container-based sanitation
Container-based sanitation (abbreviated as CBS) refers to a sanitation system where toilets collect human excreta in sealable, removable containers (also called cartridges) that are transported to treatment facilities. This type of sanitation in ...
,
ecological sanitation
Ecological sanitation, commonly abbreviated as ecosan (also spelled eco-san or EcoSan), is an approach to sanitation provision which aims to safely reuse excreta in agriculture. It is an approach, rather than a technology or a device which is ch ...
,
emergency sanitation
Emergency sanitation is the management and technical processes required to provide sanitation in emergency situations. Emergency sanitation is required during humanitarian relief operations for refugees, people affected by natural disasters and i ...
, environmental sanitation,
onsite sanitation
Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of Human waste, human excreta and sewage. Risk management, Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing wi ...
and
sustainable sanitation
Sustainable sanitation is a sanitation system designed to meet certain criteria and to work well over the long-term. Sustainable sanitation systems consider the entire "sanitation value chain", from the experience of the user, Human excreta, exc ...
. A sanitation system includes the capture, storage, transport, treatment and disposal or
reuse of human excreta and wastewater. Reuse activities within the sanitation system may focus on the nutrients, water, energy or organic matter contained in excreta and wastewater. This is referred to as the "sanitation value chain" or "sanitation economy". The people responsible for cleaning, maintaining, operating, or emptying a sanitation technology at any step of the sanitation chain are called "
sanitation worker
A sanitation worker (or sanitary worker) is a person responsible for cleaning, maintaining, operating, or emptying the equipment or technology at any step of the sanitation chain.World Bank, ILO, WaterAid, and WHO (2019)Health, Safety and Dignity ...
s".
[World Bank, ILO, WaterAid, and WHO (2019)]
Health, Safety and Dignity of Sanitation Workers: An Initial Assessment
World Bank, Washington, DC.
Several sanitation "levels" are being used to compare sanitation service levels within countries or across countries.
The sanitation ladder defined by the
Joint Monitoring Programme in 2016 starts at
open defecation
Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outdoors ("in the open") rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces for defecation. They do so either because they do ...
and moves upwards using the terms "unimproved", "limited", "basic", with the highest level being "
safely managed".
This is particularly applicable to
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
.
The
Human Right to Water and Sanitation
The human right to water and sanitation (HRWS) is a principle stating that clean drinking water and sanitation are a universal human right because of their high importance in sustaining every person's life. It was recognized as a human right b ...
was recognized by the
United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2010. Sanitation is a
global development
International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic or human development on an international scale. It is the basis for international classifications ...
priority and the subject of
Sustainable Development Goal 6
Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6 or Global Goal 6) is about "clean water and sanitation for all". It is one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, the official wording is: "Ensure ava ...
.
[WHO and UNICEF (2017]
Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: 2017 Update and SDG Baselines
Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2017 The estimate in 2017 by
JMP states that 4.5 billion people currently do not have
safely managed sanitation
Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems a ...
.
Lack of access to sanitation has an impact not only on
public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
but also on human
dignity
Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable ...
and personal safety.
Definitions
There are some variations on the use of the term "sanitation" between countries and organizations. The
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
defines the term "sanitation" as follows:
Sanitation includes all four of these technical and non-technical systems: Excreta management systems, wastewater management systems (included here are
wastewater treatment plants
Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environmen ...
),
solid waste management
Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal.
This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...
systems as well as drainage systems for rainwater, also called
stormwater drainage. However, many in the
WASH
WASH (or Watsan, WaSH) is an acronym that stands for "water, sanitation and hygiene". It is used widely by non-governmental organizations and aid agencies in developing countries. The purposes of providing access to WASH services include achievin ...
sector only include excreta management in their definition of sanitation.
Another example of what is included in sanitation is found in the handbook by
Sphere
A sphere () is a Geometry, geometrical object that is a solid geometry, three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...
on "Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response" which describes minimum standards in four "key response sectors" in
humanitarian response
Humanitarian aid is material and Humanitarian Logistics, logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. Among the people in need are the ho ...
situations. One of them is "Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion" (
WASH
WASH (or Watsan, WaSH) is an acronym that stands for "water, sanitation and hygiene". It is used widely by non-governmental organizations and aid agencies in developing countries. The purposes of providing access to WASH services include achievin ...
) and it includes the following areas:
Hygiene
Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...
promotion,
water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...
, excreta management,
vector control
Vector control is any method to limit or eradicate the mammals, birds, insects or other arthropods (here collectively called " vectors") which transmit disease pathogens. The most frequent type of vector control is mosquito control using a variet ...
, solid waste management and WASH in
disease outbreak
In epidemiology, an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire ...
s and
healthcare
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
settings.
[Sphere Association (2018]
The Sphere Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response
fourth edition, Geneva, Switzerland, 2018.
Hygiene
Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...
promotion is seen by many as an integral part of sanitation. The
Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) was a United Nations-hosted organization contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 6, Target 6.2 on sanitation and hygiene.WSSCC (2018Annual Report of WSSCC Geneva, Switzerland ...
defines sanitation as "The collection, transport, treatment and disposal or
reuse of human excreta
Reuse of human excreta is the safe, beneficial use of treated human excreta after applying suitable treatment steps and risk management approaches that are customized for the intended reuse application. Beneficial uses of the treated excreta may ...
, domestic wastewater and solid waste, and associated hygiene promotion."
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
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, logo = DfID.svg
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, logo_caption =
, picture = File:Admiralty Screen (411824276).jpg
, picture_width = 180px
, picture_caption = Department for International Development (London office) (far right ...
guidance manual on water supply and sanitation programmes from 1998:
Sanitation can include personal sanitation and public hygiene. Personal sanitation work can include handling
menstrual waste, cleaning household
toilet
A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human urine and feces, and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popu ...
s, and managing household
garbage
Garbage, trash, rubbish, or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or gaseous wastes, or toxic waste produc ...
. Public sanitation work can involve garbage collection, transfer and treatment (
municipal solid waste management), cleaning drains, streets, schools, trains,
public space
A public space is a place that is open and accessible to the general public. Roads (including the pavement), public squares, parks, and beaches are typically considered public space. To a limited extent, government buildings which are open to ...
s, community toilets and
public toilet
A public toilet, restroom, public bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils ...
s,
sewers, operating
sewage treatment plants
Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...
, etc.
[PRIA (2019)]
Lived Realities of Women Sanitation Workers in India: Insights from a Participatory Research Conducted in Three Cities of India
Participatory Research in Asia, New Delhi, India Workers who provide these services for other people are called
sanitation workers
A sanitation worker (or sanitary worker) is a person responsible for cleaning, maintaining, operating, or emptying the equipment or technology at any step of the sanitation chain.World Bank, ILO, WaterAid, and WHO (2019)Health, Safety and Dignity ...
.
Purposes
The overall purposes of sanitation are to provide a healthy living environment for everyone, to protect the natural resources (such as
surface water
Surface water is water located on top of land forming terrestrial (inland) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as ''blue water'', opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean.
The vast majority of surface water is produced by prec ...
,
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
,
soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...
), and to provide safety, security and
dignity
Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable ...
for people when they
defecate
Defecation (or defaecation) follows digestion, and is a necessary process by which organisms eliminate a solid, semisolid, or liquid waste material known as feces from the digestive tract via the anus. The act has a variety of names ranging fro ...
or
urinate
Urination, also known as micturition, is the release of urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, voiding, uresis, ...
.
The
Human Right to Water and Sanitation
The human right to water and sanitation (HRWS) is a principle stating that clean drinking water and sanitation are a universal human right because of their high importance in sustaining every person's life. It was recognized as a human right b ...
was recognized by the
United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2010.
It has been recognized in
international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
through
human rights treaties, declarations and other standards. It is derived from the
human right
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
to an adequate
standard of living
Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available, generally applied to a society or location, rather than to an individual. Standard of living is relevant because it is considered to contribute to an individual's quality ...
.
Effective sanitation systems provide barriers between excreta and humans in such a way as to break the
disease transmission
In medicine, public health, and biology, transmission is the passing of a pathogen causing communicable disease from an infected host individual or group to a particular individual or group, regardless of whether the other individual was previous ...
cycle (for example in the case of fecal-borne diseases). This aspect is visualised with the F-diagram where all major routes of
fecal-oral disease transmission begin with the letter F: feces, fingers, flies, fields, fluids, food.
Sanitation infrastructure has to be adapted to several specific contexts including consumers' expectations and local resources available.
Sanitation technologies may involve centralized
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
structures like
sewer systems,
sewage treatment
Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...
,
surface runoff
Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is the flow of water occurring on the ground surface when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when th ...
treatment and solid waste
landfill
A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
s. These structures are designed to treat
wastewater
Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industr ...
and
municipal solid waste
Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, ...
. Sanitation technologies may also take the form of relatively simple onsite sanitation systems. This can in some cases consist of a simple
pit latrine
A pit latrine, also known as pit toilet, is a type of toilet that collects human feces in a hole in the ground. Urine and feces enter the pit through a drop hole in the floor, which might be connected to a toilet seat or squatting pan for user ...
or other type of
non-flush toilet for the
excreta
Excretion is a process in which metabolic waste
is eliminated from an organism. In vertebrates this is primarily carried out by the lungs, kidneys, and skin. This is in contrast with secretion, where the substance may have specific tasks after lea ...
management part.
Providing sanitation to people requires attention to the entire system, not just focusing on technical aspects such as the
toilet
A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human urine and feces, and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popu ...
,
fecal sludge management
Fecal sludge management (FSM) (or faecal sludge management in British English) is the storage, collection, transport, treatment and safe end use or disposal of fecal sludge. Together, the collection, transport, treatment and end use of fecal slud ...
or the
wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environme ...
plant.
[Tilley, E., Ulrich, L., Lüthi, C., Reymond, Ph. and Zurbrügg, C. (2014)]
Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies. 2nd Revised Edition
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Duebendorf, Switzerland The "sanitation chain" involves the experience of the user, excreta and wastewater collection methods, transporting and treatment of waste, and
reuse
Reuse is the action or practice of using an item, whether for its original purpose (conventional reuse) or to fulfill a different function ( creative reuse or repurposing). It should be distinguished from recycling, which is the breaking down of u ...
or disposal. All need to be thoroughly considered.
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.
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.
Most of these are due to premature mortality, time lost in accessing, loss of productivity, additional costs for healthcare among others.
Inadequate sanitation also leads to loss from potential tourism revenue.
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.
Types and concepts (for excreta management)
![Percentage of population served by different types of sanitation systems](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Percentage_of_population_served_by_different_types_of_sanitation_systems.png)
The term sanitation is connected with various descriptors or adjectives to signify certain types of sanitation systems (which may deal only with
human excreta
Human waste (or human excreta) refers to the waste products of the human digestive system, menses, and human metabolism including urine and faeces. As part of a sanitation system that is in place, human waste is collected, transported, treated a ...
management or with the entire sanitation system, i.e. also greywater, stormwater and solid waste management) – in alphabetical order:
Basic sanitation
In 2017,
JMP defined a new term: "basic sanitation service". This is defined as the use of
improved sanitation
Improved sanitation (related to but distinct from a " safely managed sanitation service") is a term used to categorize types of sanitation for monitoring purposes. It refers to the management of human feces at the household level. The term was co ...
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.
Container-based sanitation
Community-based sanitation
Community-based sanitation is related to
decentralized wastewater treatment (DEWATS).
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
A dry toilet (or non-flush toilet, no flush toilet or toilet without a flush) is a toilet which, unlike a flush toilet, does not use flush water. Dry toilets do not use water to move excreta along or block odors. They do not produce sewage, and ar ...
and no sewers to transport excreta. Often when people speak of "dry sanitation" they mean a sanitation system that uses
urine-diverting dry toilet
A urine-diverting dry toilet (UDDT) is a type of dry toilet with urine diversion that can be used to provide safe, affordable sanitation in a variety of contexts worldwide. The separate collection of feces and urine without any flush water has m ...
(UDDTs).
[Platzer, C., Hoffmann, H., Ticona, E. (2008)]
Alternatives to waterborne sanitation – a comparative study – limits and potentials
IRC Symposium: Sanitation for the urban poor – partnerships and governance, Delft, The Netherlands[Flores, A. (2010)]
''Towards sustainable sanitation: evaluating the sustainability of resource-oriented sanitation''
PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge, UK
Ecological sanitation
Emergency sanitation
Environmental sanitation
Environmental sanitation encompasses the control of environmental factors that are connected to
disease transmission
In medicine, public health, and biology, transmission is the passing of a pathogen causing communicable disease from an infected host individual or group to a particular individual or group, regardless of whether the other individual was previous ...
. Subsets of this category are solid waste management, water and
wastewater
Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industr ...
treatment,
industrial waste
Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and ...
treatment and
noise pollution
Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is main ...
control.
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
Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outdoors ("in the open") rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces for defecation. They do so either because they do ...
(and open urination but this is of less concern) with associated serious public health issues.
It is estimated that 2.4 billion people still lacked
improved sanitation
Improved sanitation (related to but distinct from a " safely managed sanitation service") is a term used to categorize types of sanitation for monitoring purposes. It refers to the management of human feces at the household level. The term was co ...
facilities including 660 million people who lack access to safe drinking water as of 2015.
[WHO and UNICEF ]
Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-water: 2015 Update
', WHO, Geneva and UNICEF, New York
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".
Another term that is used for the same system is non-sewered sanitation systems (NSSS), which are prevalent in many countries.
[ ]
Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
/ref> NSSS play a vital role in the safe management of fecal sludge, accounting for approximately half of all existing sanitation provisions. The degree of treatment may be variable, from none to advanced. Examples are pit latrine
A latrine is a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. For example, it can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp to be used as emergency sanitation, a hole in the ground (pit latrine), or m ...
s (no treatment) and septic tank
A septic tank is an underground chamber made of concrete, fiberglass, or plastic through which domestic wastewater (sewage) flows for basic sewage treatment. Settling and anaerobic digestion processes reduce solids and organics, but the treatme ...
s (primary treatment
Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...
of wastewater). On-site sanitation systems are often connected to fecal sludge management
Fecal sludge management (FSM) (or faecal sludge management in British English) is the storage, collection, transport, treatment and safe end use or disposal of fecal sludge. Together, the collection, transport, treatment and end use of fecal slud ...
(FSM) systems where the fecal sludge that is generated onsite is treated at an offsite location. Wastewater (sewage
Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...
) is only generated when piped water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...
is available within the buildings or close to them.
A related term is a decentralized wastewater system
Decentralized wastewater systems (also referred to as decentralized wastewater treatment systems) convey, treat and dispose or reuse wastewater from small and low-density communities, buildings and dwellings in remote areas, individual public or ...
which refers in particular to the wastewater part of on-site sanitation. Similarly, an onsite sewage facility
Onsite sewage facilities (OSSF), also called septic systems, are wastewater systems designed to treat and dispose of effluent on the same property that produces the wastewater, in areas not served by public sewage infrastructure.
A septic tank a ...
can treat the wastewater generated locally.
The global methane emissions from NSSS in 2020 was estimated to as 377 Mt CO2e
Global warming potential (GWP) is the heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, as a multiple of the heat that would be absorbed by the same mass of carbon dioxide (). GWP is 1 for . For other gases it depends on the gas and the time f ...
per year or 4.7% of global anthropogenic methane emissions, which are comparable to the greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment plants. This means that the GHG emissions from the NSSS as a non-negligible source.
Safely managed sanitation
Safely managed sanitation is the highest level of household sanitation envisioned by the Sustainable Development Goal Number 6. 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”. The current value in the 2017 baseline estimate by JMP is that 4.5 billion people currently do not have safely managed sanitation.
Safely managed sanitation is defined as an improved sanitation
Improved sanitation (related to but distinct from a " safely managed sanitation service") is a term used to categorize types of sanitation for monitoring purposes. It refers to the management of human feces at the household level. The term was co ...
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. 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.
Sustainable sanitation
Other types, concepts and systems
Wastewater management
Wastewater management consists of collection, wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environme ...
(be it municipal or industrial wastewater
Industrial wastewater treatment describes the processes used for treating wastewater that is produced by industries as an undesirable by-product. After treatment, the treated industrial wastewater (or effluent) may be reused or released to a sa ...
), disposal or reuse of treated wastewater. The latter is also referred to as water reclamation
Water reclamation (also called wastewater reuse, water reuse or water recycling) is the process of converting municipal wastewater (sewage) or industrial wastewater into water that can be reused for a variety of purposes. Types of reuse include: ...
.
Sanitation systems in urban areas of developed countries usually consist of the collection of wastewater
Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industr ...
in gravity driven sewers, its treatment in wastewater treatment plants
Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environmen ...
for reuse
Reuse is the action or practice of using an item, whether for its original purpose (conventional reuse) or to fulfill a different function ( creative reuse or repurposing). It should be distinguished from recycling, which is the breaking down of u ...
or disposal in rivers, lakes or the sea.
In developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
most wastewater is still discharged untreated into the environment. Alternatives to centralized sewer systems include onsite sanitation
Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of Human waste, human excreta and sewage. Risk management, Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing wi ...
, decentralized wastewater system
Decentralized wastewater systems (also referred to as decentralized wastewater treatment systems) convey, treat and dispose or reuse wastewater from small and low-density communities, buildings and dwellings in remote areas, individual public or ...
s, dry toilet
A dry toilet (or non-flush toilet, no flush toilet or toilet without a flush) is a toilet which, unlike a flush toilet, does not use flush water. Dry toilets do not use water to move excreta along or block odors. They do not produce sewage, and ar ...
s connected to fecal sludge management
Fecal sludge management (FSM) (or faecal sludge management in British English) is the storage, collection, transport, treatment and safe end use or disposal of fecal sludge. Together, the collection, transport, treatment and end use of fecal slud ...
.
Stormwater drainage
Sewers are either combined with storm drain
A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, United States, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to Drainage, drain excess rain and ground water ...
s or separated from them as sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings (but not stormwater) to a sewage treatment plant or disposal. Sanitary sewers are a type of gravity sewer and are part of an o ...
s. Combined sewer
A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dilute ...
s are usually found in the central, older parts or urban areas. Heavy rainfall
Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
and inadequate maintenance can lead to combined sewer overflows or sanitary sewer overflow
Sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) is a condition in which untreated sewage is discharged from a sanitary sewer into the environment prior to reaching sewage treatment facilities. When caused by rainfall it is also known as wet weather overflow. Cause ...
s, i.e., more or less diluted raw sewage
Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...
being discharged into the environment. Industries often discharge wastewater into municipal sewers, which can complicate wastewater treatment unless industries pre-treat their discharges.
Solid waste disposal
Disposal of solid waste
Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, ...
is most commonly conducted in landfill
A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
s, but incineration, recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
, compost
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant, food waste, recycling organic materials and manure. The resulting m ...
ing and conversion to biofuel
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...
s are also avenues. In the case of landfills, advanced countries
A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country) is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastruct ...
typically have rigid protocols for daily cover The daily cover on an operational landfill site is the layer of compressed soil or earth which is laid on top of a days deposition of waste. Benefits of using daily cover include:
* Reduction of odor and air emissions
* Control of disease vector ...
with topsoil, where underdeveloped countries customarily rely upon less stringent protocols. The importance of daily cover lies in the reduction of vector contact and spreading of pathogen
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...
s. Daily cover also minimizes odor emissions and reduces windblown litter. Likewise, developed countries typically have requirements for perimeter sealing of the landfill with clay-type soils to minimize migration of leachate
A leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed.
Leachate is a widely used term in the environmental sciences wher ...
that could contaminate groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
(and hence jeopardize some drinking water
Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...
supplies).
For incineration options, the release of air pollutant
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...
s, including certain toxic
Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...
components is an attendant adverse outcome. Recycling and biofuel conversion are the sustainable
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...
options that generally have superior lifecycle costs, particularly when total ecological
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
consequences are considered. Composting value will ultimately be limited by the market demand for compost product.
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 microorganism
A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...
s of public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
significance, and in substantially reducing numbers of other undesirable microorganisms, but without adversely affecting the food or its safety for the consumer (U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...
, Code of Federal Regulations
In the law of the United States, the ''Code of Federal Regulations'' (''CFR'') is the codification of the general and permanent regulations promulgated by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government of the United States. ...
, 21CFR110, USA). Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures are mandatory for food industries in United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Similarly, in Japan, food hygiene has to be achieved through compliance with food sanitation law.
In the food and biopharmaceutical
A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biological medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, t ...
industries, the term "sanitary equipment" means equipment that is fully cleanable using clean-in-place
Clean-in-place (CIP) is an automated method of cleaning the interior surfaces of pipes, vessels, equipment, filters and associated fittings, without major disassembly. CIP is commonly used for equipment such as piping, tanks, and fillers. CIP empl ...
(CIP) and sterilization-in-place (SIP) procedures: that is fully drainable from cleaning solutions and other liquid
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...
s. The design should have a minimum amount of deadleg, or areas where the turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...
during cleaning is insufficient to remove product deposits. In general, to improve cleanability, this equipment is made from Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
316L, (an alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...
containing small amounts of molybdenum
Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lea ...
). The surface is usually electropolish
Electropolishing, also known as electrochemical polishing, anodic polishing, or electrolytic polishing (especially in the metallography field), is an electrochemical process that removes material from a metallic workpiece, reducing the surface rou ...
ed to an effective surface roughness of less than 0.5 micrometre
The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...
to reduce the possibility of bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...
l adhesion.
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.
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 (or Watsan, WaSH) is an acronym that stands for "Water supply, water, sanitation and hygiene". It is used widely by non-governmental organizations and Aid agency, aid agencies in Developing country, developing countries. The purposes of prov ...
(WASH
WASH (or Watsan, WaSH) is an acronym that stands for "water, sanitation and hygiene". It is used widely by non-governmental organizations and aid agencies in developing countries. The purposes of providing access to WASH services include achievin ...
) 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.
Health aspects
Environmental aspects
Indicator organisms
When analyzing environmental samples, various types of indicator organism
Indicator organisms are used as a proxy to monitor conditions in a particular environment, ecosystem, area, habitat, or consumer product. Certain bacteria, fungi and helminth eggs are being used for various purposes.
Types Indicator bacteria
...
s are used to check for fecal pollution of the sample. Commonly used indicators for bacteriological water analysis
Bacteriological water analysis is a method of analysing water to estimate the numbers of bacteria present and, if needed, to find out what sort of bacteria they are. It represents one aspect of water quality. It is a microbiological analytical pro ...
include the bacterium ''Escherichia coli
''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escher ...
'' (abbreviated as ''E. coli)'' and non-specific fecal coliforms
Coliform bacteria are defined as either motile or non-motile Gram-negative non-Endospore, spore forming Bacillus (shape), Bacilli that possess Beta-galactosidase, β-galactosidase to produce acids and gases under their optimal growth temperature o ...
''.'' With regards to samples of soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...
, sewage sludge
Sewage sludge is the residual, semi-solid material that is produced as a by-product during sewage treatment of industrial or municipal wastewater. The term "septage" also refers to sludge from simple wastewater treatment but is connected to si ...
, biosolids
Biosolids are solid organic matter recovered from a sewage treatment process and used as fertilizer. In the past, it was common for farmers to use animal manure to improve their soil fertility. In the 1920s, the farming community began also to use ...
or fecal matter from dry toilet
A dry toilet (or non-flush toilet, no flush toilet or toilet without a flush) is a toilet which, unlike a flush toilet, does not use flush water. Dry toilets do not use water to move excreta along or block odors. They do not produce sewage, and ar ...
s, helminth
Parasitic worms, also known as helminths, are large macroparasites; adults can generally be seen with the naked eye. Many are intestinal worms that are soil-transmitted and infect the gastrointestinal tract. Other parasitic worms such as schi ...
eggs are a commonly used indicator. With helminth egg analysis, eggs are extracted from the sample after which a viability test is done to distinguish between viable and non viable eggs. The viable fraction of the helminth eggs in the sample is then counted.
Climate change
Global mechanisms
Sustainable Development Goal Number 6
In the year 2016, the Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...
replaced the Millennium Development Goals. Sanitation is a global development
International development or global development is a broad concept denoting the idea that societies and countries have differing levels of economic or human development on an international scale. It is the basis for international classifications ...
priority and included Sustainable Development Goal 6
Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6 or Global Goal 6) is about "clean water and sanitation for all". It is one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, the official wording is: "Ensure ava ...
(SDG 6). The target is about "clean water and sanitation for all" by 2030. It is estimated that 660 million people still lacked access to safe drinking water as of 2015.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
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.
Millennium Development Goal Number 7 until 2015
The United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
, during the Millennium Summit in New York in 2000 and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development
The World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, took place in South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. It was convened to discuss ustainable developmentorganizations, 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. (It was the ...
in Johannesburg, developed the Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenniu ...
(MDGs) aimed at poverty eradication and sustainable development. The specific sanitation goal for the year 2015 was to reduce by half the number of people who had no access to potable water
Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, ag ...
and sanitation in the baseline year of 1990. As the JMP and the United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
(UNDP) Human Development Report in 2006 has shown, progress meeting the MDG sanitation target is slow, with a large gap between the target coverage and the current reality.
In December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
declared 2008 "The International Year of Sanitation
The year 2008 was declared the International Year of Sanitation by the United Nations in conjunction with the Water for Life Decade.
The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. Worldwide there are ...
", in recognition of the slow progress being made towards the MDGs sanitation target. The year aimed to develop awareness and more actions to meet the target.
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
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Thes ...
projects are emphasised.
The Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation
The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation by WHO and UNICEF is the official United Nations mechanism tasked with monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal Number 6 (SDG 6) since 2016.
Previously, u ...
of WHO
Who or WHO may refer to:
* Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun
* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism
* World Health Organization
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book ''Horton Hear ...
and UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
(JMP) has been publishing reports of updated estimates every two years on the use of various types of drinking-water sources and sanitation facilities at the national, regional and global levels. The JMP report for 2015 stated that:
* Between 1990 and 2015, open defecation
Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outdoors ("in the open") rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces for defecation. They do so either because they do ...
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
Improved sanitation (related to but distinct from a " safely managed sanitation service") is a term used to categorize types of sanitation for monitoring purposes. It refers to the management of human feces at the household level. The term was co ...
".
Initiatives to promote sanitation
In 2011 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...
launched the "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" to promote safer, more effective ways to treat human waste. The program is aimed at developing technologies that might help bridge the global sanitation gap (for example the Omni Processor
Omni Processor is a term coined in 2012 by staff of the ''Water, Sanitation, Hygiene Program'' of the Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationKuchenrither, R. D., Stone, L., Haug, R. T. (2012)Omni-Processor Landscaping Project Consultancy report by WERF ( ...
, or technology for fecal sludge management
Fecal sludge management (FSM) (or faecal sludge management in British English) is the storage, collection, transport, treatment and safe end use or disposal of fecal sludge. Together, the collection, transport, treatment and end use of fecal slud ...
). In 2015, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation published their "Water, sanitation, and hygiene strategy portfolio update and overview" called "Building demand for sanitation".
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 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
, 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. 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.[Kapur, D. (2020]
UNDERSTANDING EFFECTIVENESS OF CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT: Lessons from Sanitation Capacity Building Platform, Part 1: Journey of Urban Sanitation Capacity Development in India
National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), India Results from this project showed that capacity development best happens on the job and in a learning organization culture.[Kapur, D. (2021) UNDERSTANDING EFFECTIVENESS OF CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT : Lessons from Sanitation Capacity Building Platform (SCBP)]
Part III : Capacity Development Effectiveness Ladder (CDEL) Framework
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF URBAN AFFAIRS, India 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. 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.
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 septic tank
A septic tank is an underground chamber made of concrete, fiberglass, or plastic through which domestic wastewater (sewage) flows for basic sewage treatment. Settling and anaerobic digestion processes reduce solids and organics, but the treatme ...
s, ventilated improved pit latrine
A pit latrine, also known as pit toilet, is a type of toilet that collects human feces in a hole in the ground. Urine and feces enter the pit through a drop hole in the floor, which might be connected to a toilet seat or squatting pan for user ...
s (VIP), urine diversion dry toilets and pour-flush pit latrines. The main determinants of urban sanitation financial costs include: Type of technology, labour, material and utility cost, density, topography
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
, level of service provided by the sanitation system, soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...
condition, energy cost and others (distance to wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environme ...
facility, climate, end-use of treatment products, business models, water table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.
T ...
height).
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
Informal housing or informal settlement can include any form of housing, shelter, or settlement (or lack thereof) which is illegal, falls outside of government control or regulation, or is not afforded protection by the state. As such, the inform ...
found that US$1.58 per adult would be sufficient for construction, and less than US$1/household/month would be sufficient for maintenance.
History
Major human settlements could initially develop only where fresh surface water was plentiful, such as near rivers or natural springs
A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust (pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fresh w ...
. Throughout history people have devised systems to get water into their communities and households, and to dispose (and later also treat) wastewater. The focus of sewage treatment at that time was on conveying raw sewage to a natural body of water, e.g. a river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
or ocean
The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...
, where it would be diluted and dissipated.
The Sanitation in the Indus Valley Civilization
The ancient Indus Valley Civilization in South Asia, including current day's Pakistan and north India, was prominent in infrastructure, hydraulic engineering, and had many water supply and sanitation devices that are the first known examples ...
in Asia is an example of public water supply and sanitation during the Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
(3300–1300 BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
). Sanitation in ancient Rome
Sanitation in ancient Rome, acquired from the Etruscans, was well advanced compared to other ancient cities and provided water supply and sanitation services to residents of Rome. Although there were many sewers, public latrines, baths and other s ...
was quite extensive. These systems consisted of stone and wooden drains to collect and remove wastewater
Wastewater is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industr ...
from populated areas—see for instance the Cloaca Maxima
The Cloaca Maxima ( lat, Cloāca Maxima, lit. ''Greatest Sewer'') was one of the world's earliest sewage systems. Its name derives from Cloacina, a Roman goddess. Built during either the Roman Kingdom or early Roman Republic, it was constructed ...
into the River Tiber
The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Riv ...
in Rome. The first sewers of ancient Rome were built between 800 and 735 BCE.[Farnsworth Gray, Harold. "Sewerage in Ancient and Mediaeval Times." Sewage Works Journal Vol.12.5 (1940): 939-46]
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: sanitation workers
A sanitation worker (or sanitary worker) is a person responsible for cleaning, maintaining, operating, or emptying the equipment or technology at any step of the sanitation chain.World Bank, ILO, WaterAid, and WHO (2019)Health, Safety and Dignity ...
, waste collector
A waste collector, also known as a garbageman, garbage collector, trashman (in the US), binman or (rarely) dustman (in the UK), is a person employed by a public or private enterprise to collect and dispose of municipal solid waste (refuse) and r ...
s, sanitary engineers.
See also
* List of abbreviations used in sanitation
This is a list of abbreviations and acronyms commonly used in the sanitation sector or more broadly in the WASH sector.
A
* AA - Activated alumina
* ADB - Asian Development Bank
* ABR - Anaerobic baffled reactor - improved septic tank with baffl ...
* List of countries by proportion of the population using improved sanitation facilities
* List of water supply and sanitation by country
This list of water supply and sanitation by country provides information on the status of water supply and sanitation at a national or, in some cases, also regional level.
Water supply and sanitation by country
* Water supply and sanitation in Afg ...
* Environmental health
Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. In order to effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met in ...
* Water pollution
* Water security
* Self-supply of water and sanitation
* Sustainable Sanitation Alliance
* World Toilet Day
References
External links
*
Sustainable Sanitation Alliance
Sanitation and Wastewater Atlas of Africa
{{Authority control
Sanitation,
Hygiene
Sewerage
Articles containing video clips