Meeting community sanitation needs

Upgrading community sanitary practices

Description

Meeting community sanitation needs involves implementing practical measures to ensure safe disposal of human waste, access to clean water, and hygiene education. This strategy addresses health risks such as waterborne diseases by constructing and maintaining toilets, sewage systems, and handwashing facilities. It prioritizes community involvement, regular maintenance, and affordable solutions to overcome barriers like inadequate infrastructure and limited resources, ultimately improving public health, environmental quality, and overall well-being.

Context

"Sanitation" means the collection, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse of human excreta or domestic waste water, whether through collective systems or by installations serving a single household or undertaking.

"Collective system" means: (a) A system for the supply of drinking water to a number of households or undertakings; and/or (b) A system for the provision of sanitation which serves a number of households or undertakings and, where appropriate, also provides for the collection, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse of industrial waste water, whether provided by a body in the public sector, an undertaking in the private sector or by a partnership between the two sectors.

Implementation

Article 4(2)b of the 1999 Draft Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, requires parties to take all appropriate measures for the purpose of ensuring: Adequate sanitation of a standard which sufficiently protects human health and the environment. This shall in particular be done through the establishment, improvement and maintenance of collective systems.