Environmental sanitation: definition, components and importance
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Environmental Sanitation: Definition, Components, and Importance
Definition
The dictionary meaning of sanitation is "the science of safeguarding health." One of the most widely cited definitions comes from the National Sanitation Foundation (USA):
"Sanitation is a way of life. It is the quality of living that is expressed in the clean home, the clean farm, the clean business, the clean neighbourhood and the clean community. Being a way of life it must come from within the people; it is nourished by knowledge and grows as an obligation and an ideal in human relations."
The term environmental sanitation has been formally defined by the WHO as:
"The control of all those factors in man's physical environment which exercise or may exercise a deleterious effect on his physical development, health and survival."
In practical terms, poor environmental sanitation means: unsafe water, polluted soil, unhygienic disposal of human excreta and refuse, poor housing, insects, and rodents - all of which are primary drivers of disease and premature death in developing countries.
Note: The term "environmental sanitation" is progressively being replaced by the broader term environmental health, which requires a multi-disciplinary approach involving public health doctors, epidemiologists, public health engineers, town planners, sociologists, economists, and health inspectors.
The Environment and Its Components
The human environment has three dimensions:
| Type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Physical | Water, air, soil, housing, wastes, radiation |
| Biological | Bacteria, viruses, insects, rodents, animals |
| Social | Customs, culture, habits, income, occupation, religion |
Environmental sanitation concerns itself primarily with controlling the physical and biological dimensions.
Major Components of Environmental Sanitation
1. Safe Water Supply
Water is the most fundamental environmental sanitation component. Safe and wholesome water must be:
- Free from pathogenic agents
- Free from harmful chemical substances
- Pleasant to taste (free from color and odor)
- Usable for domestic purposes
The 34th World Health Assembly (1981) emphasized that safe drinking water is a basic element of primary health care. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) also included safe water and sanitation among attainable targets. Diseases transmitted via the fecal-oral route - diarrhea and intestinal worm infestations - account for 10% of the total burden of disease in developing countries and are directly linked to inadequate water supply.
2. Disposal of Human Excreta
Sanitary disposal of feces is one of the oldest and most essential elements of environmental sanitation. Open defecation pollutes water and soil and promotes fly breeding - transmitting cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A, and a wide range of intestinal parasites. The practice of latrine construction and promotion of community toilets is central to rural sanitation programs.
3. Solid Waste (Refuse) Disposal
Improper solid waste disposal leads to:
- Fly and mosquito breeding
- Rodent attraction and proliferation
- Soil and water contamination
- Breeding grounds for disease vectors
Waste management includes collection, transport, processing (composting, incineration), and safe final disposal (sanitary landfill).
4. Liquid Waste (Sewage/Sullage) Disposal
Liquid waste from households - wastewater from washing clothes, utensils, bathing, etc. - is called sullage. Uncontrolled flow of sullage into streets creates stagnant water bodies that breed mosquitoes (Aedes, Anopheles, Culex) and lead to diseases like malaria, dengue, filariasis, and leptospirosis.
5. Housing
Housing is a critical component of environmental sanitation. The features of an unhealthy house include:
- Dampness, poor lighting, poor ventilation
- Absence of separate kitchen, latrine, bathroom, and drainage
- Overcrowding (promotes respiratory infections and tuberculosis)
- Cohabitation of humans and animals
Good housing standards require adequate space (minimum 500 cubic feet per worker in industrial settings), proper lighting, ventilation, and structural integrity.
6. Vector Control
Insects and rodents are biological vectors that bridge environmental sanitation and communicable disease. Key vectors include:
- Mosquitoes - malaria, dengue, filariasis
- Flies - typhoid, dysentery, cholera, trachoma
- Rodents - plague, leptospirosis, rat-bite fever
- Fleas, lice, ticks - various rickettsial and bacterial diseases
Vector control combines environmental management (removing breeding sites), biological control, and judicious use of insecticides.
7. Food Sanitation
Sanitary preparation, storage, and handling of food are essential, particularly in industrial establishments, schools, hospitals, and markets. Education of food handlers is the cornerstone of preventing outbreaks of gastro-intestinal disease.
8. Air Quality / Ventilation
Poor ventilation increases person-to-person spread of respiratory infections and reduces physical and mental efficiency. Air pollution (from industrial emissions, vehicular exhaust, indoor cooking fuels) is a growing environmental health concern in both urban and rural settings.
9. General Plant and Community Cleanliness
Walls, ceilings, and passages should be maintained and repainted periodically. Dust from floors and machinery should be removed by vacuum cleaners or wetting agents. High standards of general cleanliness are fundamentals of both accident prevention and infection control.
Importance of Environmental Sanitation
1. Prevention of Communicable Diseases
The majority of communicable diseases in developing countries are environmentally mediated - transmitted through contaminated water, food, soil, air, or vectors. Environmental sanitation breaks these transmission chains at their source.
2. Reduction of Mortality and Morbidity
High death rates, high infant mortality rates, and high sickness rates in developing countries are largely due to defective environmental sanitation. Improving sanitation directly reduces mortality, especially among children under five (primarily through diarrheal disease control).
3. Promotion of Positive Health
Sanitation goes beyond disease prevention - it creates conditions for a positive state of health and well-being. There can be no state of positive health without safe water, adequate waste disposal, decent housing, and a clean community.
4. Socio-economic Development
Water and sanitation are integrated with nutrition, food security, maternal and child health, and economic productivity. Communities with poor sanitation have reduced school attendance (especially girls), reduced labor productivity, and higher healthcare costs.
5. Protection of Vulnerable Populations
Children, pregnant women, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals are disproportionately affected by poor environmental conditions. Sanitation is thus a social equity issue as much as a health one.
6. Environmental and Ecological Integrity
Industrial growth and urbanization generate new hazards - chemical pollution, radioactive waste, industrial effluents. Environmental sanitation programs protect the broader ecosystem, which in turn protects human health.
7. Foundation of Primary Health Care
The 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration explicitly included safe water and sanitation as essential components of Primary Health Care (PHC). Access to sanitation remains one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation).
Summary Table
| Component | Key Concern | Related Diseases |
|---|---|---|
| Safe water supply | Contamination by pathogens/chemicals | Cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A, dysentery |
| Excreta disposal | Open defecation, fecal-oral transmission | Diarrhea, polio, helminths |
| Solid waste disposal | Fly/rodent breeding | Typhoid, dysentery, plague |
| Liquid waste disposal | Mosquito breeding, soil contamination | Malaria, dengue, filariasis |
| Housing | Overcrowding, dampness, poor ventilation | TB, respiratory infections |
| Vector control | Insect/rodent vectors | Malaria, dengue, plague, leptospirosis |
| Food sanitation | Contaminated food handling | Gastroenteritis, food poisoning |
| Air quality | Indoor/outdoor pollution | Respiratory diseases, lung cancer |
Source: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine - Environmental Sanitation and Environmental Health chapters.
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