Sustainable sanitation

Sustainable sanitation is a type of sanitation system which strives to be "sustainable" in all respects. According to the definition by the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance a sustainable sanitation system should meet the following five criteria: 1) it should be economically viable; 2) socially acceptable; 3) technically appropriate; 4) institutionally appropriate; and 5) protective of the environment and the natural resources.

The purpose of sustainable sanitation, like sanitation in general, is to protect and promote human health by providing a clean environment that reduces disease, particularly by transmission via the fecal-oral route. Sustainable sanitation, defined in this way, may or may not have an emphasis on reuse of excreta.

This approach to sanitation requires a systems approach, rather than only focussing on the toilet itself. The experience of the user, waste collection methods, transportation or conveyance of waste, waste treatment, and reuse or disposal all need to be thoroughly assessed.

The Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) of the WHO (World Health Organisation) 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 faecal 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 excreta is taken care of in a safe manner, for example with the urine-diverting dry toilets that SOIL is employing in Haiti.

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Wikipedia