Sanitation denotes a
comprehensive concept, in fact, it is ‘way of life’, which is expressed in
clean home, community, institutions for better health and safe environment.
Moreover, safe sanitary practice is a crucial indicator for qualifying
improvement in standards of living. This concern is triggered by the fact that
approx 55 percent of the rural population still reported practicing open
defection. Improving this situation calls for sustained
commitment and a comprehensive
programme to effectively address the issues of sanitation. The Total Sanitation
Campaign(TSC) is the reflection of this commitment which seeks to improve the
quality of life in the rural areas
through accelerated rural
sanitation coverage, generation of felt need through awareness creation and
health education; coverage of rural schools with sanitary facilities;
encouragement for suitable, cost effective and appropriate technologies; check
in absenteeism; and reduction in the incidence of water and sanitation related
diseases. TSC has, therefore, developed strategic components to ensure full
coverage of sanitation through financial and programmatic support in software
and hardware component of household, school, aganwadi and community sanitation.
Amongst them, household sanitation is the prime importance to the TSC in order
to check the practice of open defecatio and ensure access to sanitary toilet
to all persons. TSC aims to cover both below poverty line(BPL) families and
above poverty line(APL) families. A wide range of technological choices is
provided in TSC to make toilets affordable to households in different income
levels with reference to
customer preferences,
construction materials and capacities. The individual household is at liberty
to select any technological options suitable to their local and economic
conditions.
- Why Household Sanitation.
Excreta disposal is an important part of overall environmental sanitation.
Inadequate and unsanitary disposal of infected human excreta leads to the
contamination of the ground water
and sources of drinking water
supplies. It provides shelter to breed flies to lay their eggs and to carry
infection from faeces to other human beings. Man is the reservoir of infection
for several diseases. Faecal borne diseases and worm infestations are the main
cause of deaths and morbidity in a community where they go for
indiscriminate d*fecation. It is
interesting to note that all such diseases are controllable or preventable
through good sanitary barriers through safe disposal of human excreta.There are many ways by which disease-producing
pathogen spreads or reaches the new host – the human being. Depending upon the
hygiene behavior of the individual, the causative agent or pathogen from faeces
takes different mode to reach the host. This is illustrated in Fig 1. The
technical objective of sanitary disposal of human excreta is therefore to isolate or segregate human
faeces so that the disease-producing organisms in faeces cannot possibly get
into a new host through the common modes of transmission. The fig 2 shows the
place at which the technology is applied to break the chain of transmission from
human excreta. This technology is called sanitary barrier or sanitation
technology for safe human excreta disposal.
Faeco-oral disease cycle can be
broken at various levels by:
• Segregating faeces
• Providing protected drinking
water supply
• Keeping foods clean
• Improving personal hygiene
• Controlling files and
• Disposing waste water safely.These are some methods of
breaking the faecal borne disease cycle. Of these, the most effective method is
the segregation of faeces and its proper disposal. The method is called
“Sanitary Barrier”. This barrier can be provided by a “Sanitary Latrine” and
disposing the faeces into a pit. Sanitary latrines are made to contain the
entire waste material(excreta, urine and ablution water), which efficiently
prevents contact, by human beings, files or any other animals or insects.
Several models of sanitary latrines are now available to the people.
The models and types vary from
place to place and people to people. One should not forget to choose a model
that fulfils the criteria of a ‘Sanitary Latrine’. Since, the households are
first and primary unit of sanitary latrine system therefore, the importance of
household sanitation becomes important part of any sanitation drive in order to
ensure proper disposal of excreta waste as well prevent open d*fecation.
