Sustainable sanitation

Sustainable sanitation is a sanitation system designed to meet certain criteria and to work well over the long-term. The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) includes five features (or criteria) in its definition of 'sustainable sanitation.' Systems need to be economically and socially acceptable, technically and institutionally appropriate and protect the environment and natural resources. Sustainable sanitation is a sanitation system designed to meet certain criteria and to work well over the long-term. The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) includes five features (or criteria) in its definition of 'sustainable sanitation.' Systems need to be economically and socially acceptable, technically and institutionally appropriate and protect the environment and natural resources. The purpose of sustainable sanitation is the same as sanitation in general: to protect human health. However, 'sustainable sanitation' attends to all processes of the system. This includes methods of collecting, transporting, treating and the disposal (or reuse) of waste. The Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) of the WHO (World Health Organization) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) was responsible for monitoring progress towards the Millennium Development Goal for drinking water and sanitation. For reasons of simplicity—being able to monitor the sanitation situation with household surveys—the JMP had to find a simple differentiation between 'improved' sanitation (toilets that count towards the MDG goals) and 'unimproved' sanitation (toilets that do not count towards the MDG goals). According to the JMP definition, improved sanitation facilities include facilities which are: Unimproved sanitation facilities according to the JMP include: In some circumstances 'improved' sanitation facilities can be regarded as not sustainable, whereas in other circumstances 'unimproved' sanitation facilities can be regarded as sustainable. This is because it depends on the sanitation system, of which the toilet is only one part. For example, a pit latrine with a slab can become unsustainable sanitation if it is polluting the groundwater or if the waste sludge that is removed from the pit latrine is dumped into the environment. A bucket toilet can become sustainable if the collection, treatment and reuse or disposal of waste is taken care of in a safe manner, for example with the urine-diverting dry toilets that SOIL is employing in Haiti. Sustainable sanitation, defined with the five sustainability measures, may or may not have an focus on reuse of excreta, because the criterion of 'protecting the natural resources' is only one of several that need to be aimed towards. In comparison, ecological sanitation (ecosan) has a strong focus on the reuse of waste. The main objective of a sanitation system is to protect and promote human health by providing a clean environment and breaking the cycle of disease. In order to be sustainable a sanitation system has to be not only economically viable, socially acceptable, and technically and institutionally appropriate, but it should also protect the environment and the natural resources. According to the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance, when improving an existing and/or designing a new sanitation system, sustainability criteria related to the following aspects should be considered: Health aspects include the risk of exposure to pathogens and hazardous substances that could affect public health at all points of the sanitation system from the toilet via the collection and treatment system to the point of reuse or disposal. The topic also covers aspects such as hygiene, nutrition and the improvement of livelihood achieved by the application of a certain sanitation system, as well as downstream effects.