It is a practice or behavior of keeping our surrounding clean and free from disease causing germs.
It includes:
- Solid waste management
- Waste water management
- Insect vector control e.g. Jiggers, mosquitoes cockroaches
- Human waste management
Faeces is the biggest threat to our health in sanitation, and its safe disposal is crucial.
Disposal practices include:
- Defecate in a small hole, then cover with earth (cat’s method)
- A traditional pit latrine
- An improved pit latrine with an improved slab
- An improved pit latrine with ventilation
- Flush toilet with on-site disposal
- Flush toilet with sewage and waste water treatment
Problems associated with poor sanitation
- Diarrhea diseases e.g. Cholera, typhoid, dysentery
- Water and land contamination
- Breeding of insect and other vectors
- Worm infestations
- Dirty environment
- Foul smells
Hygiene
- Is the practice of keeping oneself and the surrounding environment clean
- Hygiene practices involve food and personal hygiene
- Personal hygiene involves the following: bathing regularly, brush your teeth twice a day and keep it clean to avoid lice, wash eyes and face daily to avoid trachoma
- Putting on clean shoes, wash your feet before going to bed to avoid jiggers, hookworms and bilharzia, wear clean clothes, keep nails clean and short (refer to school health hygiene)
- Spitting in the open
- Open coughing
- Blowing of the nose with bear hands
- Sneezing without covering both nose and mouth.
