User:Aisha anjali/sandbox

SANITATION AND HYGIENE
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes as well as the treatment and proper disposal of sewage or waste water. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems include human and animal excreta, solid wastes, domestic waste water (sewage or grey water) industrial wastes and agricultural wastes. Hygienic means of prevention can be by using engineering solutions (e.g., sanitary sewers, sewage treatment, surface runoff management, solid waste management, excreta management), simple technologies (e.g., pit latrines, dry toilets, urine-diverting dry toilets, septic tanks), or even simply by behavior changes in personal hygiene practices, such as hand washing with soap

CONTENT 1.Definition and purposes

2.Health aspects

2.1 Diarrhea

2.2 Malnutrition and stunting

2.3 List of diseases caused by lack of sanitation

Definition and purposes
The World Health Organization defines the term "sanitation" as follows:

"Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feces. The word 'sanitation' also refers to the maintenance of hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection and wastewater disposal."

Sanitation includes all four of these engineering infrastructure items (even though often only the first one is strongly associated with the term "sanitation"): Excreta management systems, waste water management systems (included here are wastewater treatment plants), solid waste management systems, drainage systems for rainwater, also called storm water drainage.

Health aspects
Further information: Child mortality and Infant mortal

Lack of sanitation is a serious issue that is affecting most developing countries and countries in transition. The importance of the isolation of excreta and waste lies in an effort to prevent diseases which can be transmitted through human waste, which afflict both developed countries as well as developing countries to differing degrees.

Diarrhea
Diarrhea plays a significant role: Deaths resulting from diarrhea are estimated to be between 1.6 and 2.5 million deaths every year.[citation needed] Most of the affected are young children below the ages of five.[citation needed] Children suffering from diarrhea are more vulnerable to become underweight (due to stunted growth) which makes them more vulnerable to other diseases such as acute respiratory infections and malaria.

Numerous studies have shown that improvements in drinking water and sanitation (WASH) lead to decreased risks of diarrhoea.

Malnutrition and stunting
The combination of direct and indirect deaths from malnutrition caused by unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices is estimated by the World Health Organisation to lead to 860,000 deaths per year in children under five years of age. The multiple interdependencies between malnutrition and infectious diseases make it very difficult to quantify the portion of malnutrition that is caused by infectious diseases which are in turn caused by unsafe WASH practices.