Why sanitation should matter to you

A breakdown of the link between sanitation and public health

Khushi Desai | July 4, 2022


#Covid-19   #pandemic   #Water   #Sanitation   #Hygiene   #WASH   #Swachh Bharat Mission   #Jal Jeevan Mission   #economy  
(File Photo: Arun Kumar/GN)
(File Photo: Arun Kumar/GN)

How many times a day do you flush the toilet? This number is probably between five and eight times for an average person. How many times a day do you spare a thought towards what happens to the human waste after you flush it away? The answer to this is likely to be close to zero for most people.

While citizens with access to piped sewer networks rarely have a reason to worry about what happens to their waste, about two-third of Indian households with toilets are, in fact, not connected to sewer systems and rely on on-site sanitation systems. It is critical that members of the society acknowledge the challenges arising due to unsafe sanitation practices, such as adverse living conditions, for the most vulnerable groups and the society at large.

Currently, in India, it is estimated that 60% of faecal sludge is dumped illegally without any treatment – contaminating open land and water bodies across the country. The pathogen content in faecal sludge is extremely high and without proper treatment leads to the transfer of major infectious vectors. Nearly 70% of India’s surface water is now polluted and contaminated by biological, toxic, organic and inorganic pollutants.

What does this mean for communities?
Many communities in India, especially those downstream from polluted rivers and without access to piped water, are afflicted by infectious diseases like diarrhoea, typhoid, intestinal worms, cholera, malaria, schistosomiasis. In 2019, approximately 33 people for every 100,000 of the Indian population died due to sanitation-related ailments, with a high incidence of disease among children under the age of five. Without safely managed sanitation, the disease burden devastates quality of life socially and economically.

Additionally, unsafe sanitation is increasingly being recognised as the cause for spreading anti-microbial resistance – infections that are resistant to antimicrobials and antibiotics. Anti-microbial resistant bacteria are known to have vast presence in wastewater and without treatment, go on to re-contaminate humans through drinking water or food. It is touted as one of the most enormous and historic public health challenges faced by India and countries around the world. Without building safe water and sanitation systems as protective frontiers, communities shall face more serious breakdowns of public health systems in the future.

The Covid-19 pandemic is not only a demonstration of the severe loss of human life due to infectious diseases, weak health and improper sanitation systems; it is also a paradigm of how safe water, sanitation and hygiene practices are key to provide resilience against adverse outcomes en masse. Many things from a rigorous hand-washing regime to adequate waste management were key levers that enabled the country to fight against the pandemic. Had these systems been in practice before the pandemic, there is a significant case to suggest that the pandemic would perhaps have been less destructive for the communities.

What can we do about it?
Think about it this way: a single truck of faecal sludge dumped into the open contains the equivalent of 5,000 people defecating in the open. This leads to public health and environmental challenges that are further magnified to large chunks of the population. However, there are ways to build preventive barriers to ensure that the waste finds its way to treatment plants. By developing an integrated and holistic sanitation value chain known as Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM), the waste can be safely treated and converted into a form safe for disposal into the natural environment. Moreover, the treated wastewater can also be utilised in agriculture and other use cases by extracting key nutrients and energy from the sludge – provided it meets the scientific standards set in policy.

Not only is safe sanitation one of the most integral Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6.2), it is also a crucial component of the One Health approach to public health – a multi-level, multidisciplinary approach to achieve positive health outcomes through optimal human-environment interactions. While India has made significant progress on driving forward the safe sanitation agenda, there is much more that needs to be done even more rapidly, with support from the FSSM and safely managed sanitation construct. This is why sanitation should matter to you – for the healthier, safer and more sustainable communities of the future.

Khushi Desai is Analyst, Urban Sanitation, Dasra

 

Comments

 

Other News

A portrait of Dom community opens a world not seen by many

Fire on the Ganges: Life among the Dead in Banaras By Radhika Iyengar 4th Estate / HarperCollins, 348 pages, 599

Revamp BMC Engineering Department for better governance, says think tank

Calling for reforms in the Engineering Department of BMC, Mumbai Vikas Samiti, a not-for-profit organisation has said that less than optimum performance of Engineering Function has added to the woes of citizens and deterioration in the quality of life in the metro. In its recently released r

NGO hails Maharashtra move to amend Insecticide Act

Hailing the Maharashtra government for introducing a bill to amend the Insecticide Act, 1968, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) India has called the amendments ‘very  focussed’ and urged the state to expand their scope to address other challenges. The bill, introduced in the a

‘Garba of Gujarat’, now a Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage

`Garba of Gujarat` has been inscribed in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity by UNESCO, under the provisions of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage during the 18th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of t

Cyber frauds helpline has helped save Rs 930 crore

Since its inception, Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System has witnessed more than 12.77 lakh complaints registered (till November 15, 2023), and has saved more than Rs. 930 crore in more than 3.80 lakh complaints. This was stated by minister of state for home affair

COP28 discusses climate resilient development in Himalayas

Impacts and implications of Climate Change Vulnerability in the Himalayan Region and ways of creating ‘Climate Resilient Development in Indian Himalayan Region by making mountain communities green and resilient were discussed the side event hosted at the India pavilion at the UN Climate Conference CO

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter