Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and adequate treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation system aim to protect human health by providing a clean environment that will stop the transmission of disease, especially through the fecal-oral route. For example, diarrhea, a main cause of malnutrition and stunted growth in children, can be reduced through sanitation. There are many other diseases which are easily transmitted in communities that have low levels of sanitation, such as ascariasis (a type of intestinal worm infection or helminthiasis), cholera, hepatitis, polio, schistosomiasis, trachoma, to name just a few.
A range of sanitation technologies and approaches exists. Some examples are community-led total sanitation, container-based sanitation, ecological sanitation, emergency sanitation, environmental sanitation, onsite sanitation and sustainable sanitation. 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".
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 and moves upwards using the terms "unimproved", "limited", "basic", with the highest level being "safely managed". This is partiularly applicable to developing countries.
Sanitation includes all four of these engineering infrastructure items (even though often only the first one is strongly associated with the term "sanitation"): Excreta management systems, wastewater management systems (included here are wastewater treatment plants), solid waste management systems, drainage systems for rainwater, also called stormwater drainage.
There are some variations on the use of the term "sanitation" between countries. For example, hygiene promotion is seen by some as an integral part of sanitation. For this reason, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council defines sanitation as "The collection, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse of human excreta, 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" Types :
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.
Container-based sanitation
Container-based sanitation (CBS) refers to a sanitation system where human excreta is collected in sealable, removable containers (or cartridges) that are transported to treatment facilities. Container-based sanitation is usually provided as a service involving provision of certain types of portable toilets, and collection of excreta at a cost borne by the users. With suitable development, support and functioning partnerships, CBS can be used to provide low-income urban populations with safe collection, transport and treatment of excrement at a lower cost than installing and maintaining sewers.In most cases, CBS is based on the use of urine-diverting dry toilets.
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).
Environmental sanitation
Environmental sanitation encompasses the control of environmental factors that are connected to disease transmission. Subsets of this category are solid waste management, water and wastewater treatment, industrial waste treatment and noise and pollution control.
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. It is estimated that 2.4 billion people still lacked improved sanitation facilities as of 2015
Diseases caused by lack of sanitation.
Relevant diseases and conditions caused by lack of sanitation and hygiene include:
-
Waterborne diseases, which can contaminate drinking water
-
Diseases transmitted by the fecal-oral route
-
Infections with intestinal helminths (worms) - approximately two billion people are infected with soil-transmitted helminths worldwide; they are transmitted by eggs present in human faeces which in turn contaminate soil in areas where sanitation is poor.
-
Stunted growth in children
-
Malnutrition, particularly in children
The list of diseases that could be reduced with proper access to sanitation and hygiene practices is very long. For example, in India, 15 diseases have been listed which could be stamped out by improving sanitation:
-
Anaemia, malnutrition
-
Ascariasis (a type of intestinal worm infection)
-
Campylobacteriosis
-
Cholera
-
Cyanobacteria toxins
-
Dengue
-
Hepatitis
-
Japanese encephalitis (JE)
-
Leptospirosis
-
Malaria
-
Ringworm or Tinea (a type of intestinal worm infection)
-
Scabies
-
Schistosomiasis
-
Trachoma
-
Typhoid and paratyphoid enteric fevers
-
Shigellosis
-
Polio is another disease which is related to improper sanitation and hygiene.
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 behaviour in an order to reduce and/or prevent incidences of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) 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 mobilisation of affected communities and the provision of essential material and facilities.
We have arranged seminar, workshops on how to manage the solid waste, municipal waste. Always we give importance on hygiene & sanitation, because these are the basic rules which helps to be a disease free person.
We have done a project on plastic waste management.