Sanitation and Disease: ​ Have you heard about Diahorrea? Diarrhoea is a disease caused by a lack of sanitation. Sanitation is a hygienic method of promoting health by avoiding human contact with waste hazards and the treatment and proper disposal of sewage wastewater. Read the article below to learn more about hygiene and disease.

Define Sanitation

Sanitation entails creating a hygienic (or clean) environment around us, which is critical for disease prevention and health maintenance. Poor sanitation and contaminated drinking water are the root causes of a slew of diseases in our country. Sanitary systems aim to protect human health by creating a clean environment that prevents disease transmission, particularly through the faecal-oral route. Proper hygiene, for example, can reduce diarrhoea, a leading cause of malnutrition and stunted growth in children.

Types of Sanitation

The sanitation types are discussed below:

1. Basic Sanitation

Basic sanitation is the use of improved sanitary facilities that are not shared with other households.

2. Container-Based Sanitation (CBS)

Container-based sanitation refers to a sanitation system in which toilets collect human waste in removable and lockable containers that are transported to treatment facilities.

3. Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS)

Community-led total sanitation ​is an approach mainly used in developing countries to improve sanitary and hygienic practices in a community.

4. Dry Sanitation

Dry disinfection refers to a system that uses a dry, drainless toilet to move excreta.

5. Ecological Sanitation

Ecological sanitation is a sanitation approach that aims to safely reuse excreta in agriculture.

6. Emergency Sanitation

Emergency sanitation is the management and technical processes required to provide sanitary facilities in emergency situations.

7. Environmental Sanitation

Environmental hygiene involves controlling environmental factors associated with the transmission of disease.

Spreading of Disease Due to Poor Sanitation and Drinking of Contaminated Water

Many people in our country still do not have sewers to safely dispose of human waste, so a large part of our population defecates outdoors in fields, near railways, on dry river beds, and much more. Untreated human waste is harmful to health. Untreated human waste causes soil and water pollution. This contaminates groundwater. River and groundwater are the sources of drinking water for many people; drinking water contaminated with untreated human excreta is becoming the most common way of spreading waterborne diseases. Some of the diseases that are transmitted by the water that spreads in this way are cholera, typhoid, polio, meningitis, hepatitis, and dysentery.

Prevention of Disease

To avoid waterborne diseases, people should not defecate in open areas (or near bodies of water). Everyone should be aware of their responsibility to keep the “water source” clean by preventing contamination. Drinking water is a basic human need. Unfortunately, not everyone has safe drinking water. It is estimated that over a billion people worldwide lack safe drinking water. Water contaminated by humans is the cause of a large number of water-related diseases and even deaths around the world.

Recognizing the dire situation caused by the lack of safe and clean water in many parts of the world, the United Nations General Assembly, on the occasion of World Water Day on \(22\) March \(2005\), announced the period \(2005-2015\) as the International Decade for Economic Action on the topic “Water for Life.” Every effort will be made during this decade to halve the number of people without access to clean water.

Alternative Arrangements for Sewage Disposal

In order to improve sanitation and prevent waterborne diseases, inexpensive on-site wastewater treatment systems are recommended for those without sewage facilities. Examples of on-site sewage disposal systems for human waste are:

• (i) Septic tanks,
• (ii) Composting pits, and
• (iii) Chemical toilets.

These are measures for the hygienic disposal of human waste (or human excreta). Septic tanks and compost pits are called local sewers because they treat wastewater close to where it originated (and not elsewhere). Septic tanks and compost pits provide us with toilets.

i. Septic Tanks

A septic tank generally consists of a large, covered, underground concrete tank that has an inlet pipe at one end and an outlet pipe at the other end. The toilet seat is connected to the inlet pipe of the septic tank. The toilet seat enters the septic tank through the inlet pipe.

The solid part of the excreta continues to accumulate in the form of sludge at the bottom of the septic tank, while the aqueous waste remains above it. Anaerobic bacteria break down most of the organic solids found in human feces, so the amount of solid waste is reduced too much. The digested solid waste continues to settle at the bottom of the septic tank; the aqueous waste is also cleaned by anaerobic bacteria. The excess water leaves the septic tank through the outlet pipe and is absorbed into the ground.

Septic tanks are suitable for those places where there is no sewage system. In our villages, biogas is made from cattle dung. Human waste can also be used in a biogas plant to produce biogas.

ii. Compost Pits

Compost pits are used to provide composting toilets. A composting toilet consists of a toilet seat attached to a composting chamber that is connected to a drying chamber. The composting chamber decomposes human waste with the help of aerobic microorganisms and converts them into compost.

The drying chamber lets moisture out of the compost and solidifies it. This solid compost is regularly removed and used as compost. Compost toilets are used where the water supply is limited or not available at all. One benefit of these toilets is that they provide us with compost (or manure), thus helping to obtain useful nutrients for plants. A compost pit toilet treats wastewater near where it originates.

iii. Chemical Toilets

A chemical toilet uses a chemically treated container located directly under the toilet seat. Chemicals reduce the odour of human waste and partially disinfect human waste. Chemical toilets have limited storage capacity for human waste lines after a certain period of time. All mobile toilets are chemical toilets. They can be moved from one place to another; chemical toilets are used on construction sites and at large outdoor gatherings such as music festivals and weddings etc.

iv. Vermi-Processing Toilet

In the worm-processing toilet, earthworms treat human excreta in a pit, which gradually eat and break down all the organic substances contained in human excreta and leave their body in the form of worm castings.

Vermi cakes are a type of high-quality compost that can be added to the soil for growing crops. The Vermi-processing Toilet is a ​low water consumption toilet for the safe processing of human waste. A vermi-processing toilet design has been successfully tested in India.

v. Toilets in Aeroplanes

Aeroplanes have a special type of toilet called “vacuum toilet.” Therefore, human excreta is flushed through vacuum toilets on an airplane. When we flush the toilet on an airplane, a valve is opened in a pipe that has the vacuum in the pipe, with great force, sucks human waste from the toilet seat and carries it to a tank onboard the airplane. If the aircraft lands at an airport, the tank with all human excreta is emptied through connecting pipes into a sewer on the ground.

Importance of Sanitation

• 1. Sanitation is important for everyone; it contributes to the maintenance of health and increases lifespan. However, it is especially important for children. Worldwide, more than \(1400\) children under the age of five die every day from preventable diarrhea caused by a lack of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene.
• 2. Sanitation helps to create a more pleasant work environment.
• 3. Sanitation prevents pest infestation.
• 4. Sanitation can help to increase shelf life.
• 5. Sanitation kills bacteria that are already present.
• 6. Sanitation minimises the chance of injury.

Summary

From this article, we learned that:

• 1. Sanitation means creating a hygienic environment (or clean environment) around us, which is essential to preventing disease and maintaining good health.
• 2. Bad sanitation and contaminated drinking water are the cause of a multitude of diseases in our country.
• 3. Basic sanitation, container-based sanitation, community-led total sanitation, Dry sanitation, Ecological sanitation are some types of sanitation.
• 4. Sanitation helps to create a more pleasant work environment, prevents pest infestation, etc.

FAQs on Sanitation and Disease

Q.1. What are sanitation and its importance?
Ans: Sanitation means creating a hygienic environment (or clean environment) around us, which is essential to preventing disease and maintaining good health.
The importance of sanitation are as follows:
1. Sanitation is important for everyone; it contributes to the maintenance of health and increases lifespan. However, it is especially important for children. Worldwide, more than \(1400\) children under the age of five die every day from preventable diarrhea caused by a lack of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene.
2. Sanitation helps to create a more pleasant work environment.
3. Sanitation prevents pest infestation.
4. Sanitation can help to increase shelf life.
5. Sanitation kills bacteria that are already present.
6. Sanitation minimises the chance of injury.

Q.2. Why is sanitation important for health?
Ans: Sanitation is important because it protects human health, extends life spans.

Q.3. What causes poor sanitation?
Ans: Factors that cause poor sanitation are as follows:
1. Urbanization
2. Inadequate water provision
3. Poverty
4. Poor Governance

Q.4. How can we prevent poor sanitation-related diseases?
Ans: We can prevent disinfectant diseases by providing toilets and latrines that are flushed down the sewer or into a safe enclosure.

Q.5. What is the relationship between cleanliness and disease?
Ans: Many diseases are caused by poor cleanliness, such as parasitic disease, worms disease, scabies, wounds, tooth decay, diarrhea, and dysentery, etc. are caused by poor personal hygiene. All of these diseases can be prevented by cleaning.

Q.6. What are the problems of poor sanitation?
Ans: Poor sanitation is linked to the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio and exacerbates growth retardation. Poor hygiene adversely affects human well-being, social and economic development due to effects such as fear, risk of sexual assault, and loss of educational opportunities.

Q.7. What is proper sanitation?
Ans: Sanitation refers to the safe collection, transportation, handling, and disposal of human waste. Proper sanitation promotes health, improves the quality of the environment and thus the quality of life in a community.

Study About Diseases and its Causes Here

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