The Importance Of Sanitation

Access to improved water and adequate sanitation are essential to good health and socio-economic developments (Crow & Odaba, 2010). Sanitation refers to the hygienic management of human excreta through collection, disposal or reuse methods (Ujang & Henze, 2006). Studies have found human excretion as a primary mode of disease transmission, therefore improved sanitation facilities attempts to minimize human contact with excreta, thereby reducing the risk of transmission of potential pathogens (Kawata, 1978; WHO/UNICEF, 2012).

The lack of access to adequate sanitation facilities is one of the main factors hindering progress towards the world’s poor meeting their needs. Inadequate sanitation exacerbates malnutrition, poor education and diseases;

A study in Peru showed that without adequate water, hygiene would not improve even with education (Gilman et al., 1993). Sanitation and hygienic latrine uptake could suffer the same problem from unreliable water supplies, especially if a population is using any sort of flush toilet system. It has been established that political unrest, water scarcity, unreliable energy supply and financial constraints challenge the development of sustained sanitation in most low income countries (Seymour,

Although there has been improvement in the sanitation coverage, the huge gap between rural, municipal, and metropolitan areas is driven by the precarious situation observed in low-income settings, especially in the slums. Access to improved sanitation facilities within slum areas is particularly poor and is mostly affected by intermittent water supply. In Dhaka slums, 85 percent of households share toilet facilities with other households and only13 percent of households have access to “improved” toilet facilities that is not shared by other households (BUHS,