What Is Environmental Sanitation?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines 'Environmental Sanitation' 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."

Environmental sanitation/hygiene includes all the activities aimed at improving or maintaining the standard of basic environmental conditions affecting the well being of people. These conditions include:

• Clean and safe water supply
• Clean and safe ambient air
• Efficient and safe animal, human, and industrial waste disposal
• Protection of food from biological and chemical contaminants
• Adequate housing in clean and safe surroundings

What Do Statistics Indicate?

• Poor hygiene, lack of sanitation facilities and inadequate quantities and quality of drinking water are the major reasons for the death of several poor people suffering from preventable diseases every year
• Women and children are the main victims
• Diarrhoeal diseases impact children most severely, killing more than 2 million young children a year in the developing world
• Many more children are left underweight and malnourished, stunted mentally and physically and susceptible to several deadly diseases
• If adequate global action is not taken then the sufferings of the poor are expected to worsen in the near future Is There A Link Between Water, Sanitation And Health?
• Inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene account for various illnesses and increasing death rates in the developing countries like India
• After malnutrition, lack of clean water and sanitation is the second most important risk factor in terms of the global burden of diseases
• Contaminated water that is consumed may result in water-borne diseases like viral hepatitis, typhoid, cholera, dysentery and other diseases that cause diarrhoea
• Without adequate quantities of water for personal hygiene, skin and eye infections (like trachoma) can spread easily
• Drinking water supplies that contain high amounts of certain chemicals (like arsenic and nitrates) can cause serious disease

What Is The Status Of Environmental Sanitation In India?

• India is still lagging way behind many countries in the field of environmental sanitation
• Due to high population, poverty and illiteracy, many of the cities are congested. Due to inadequate water supply and inadequate facilities of the disposal of human excreta, waste water and solid wastes, there are a host of infectious diseases that people suffer from
• Adequate measures should be taken so as to fulfil some basic needs of the deprived people. This will not just improve the environmental hygiene but will also save many preventable deaths
• The facilities provided by the government along with a cooperative community attitude - both together will create a healthy environment