Sanitation Policies
Updated - Wednesday 18 April 2007
To find out what this TOP is about, you may read the Summary. As you read, you will find various temptations to link to other documents with useful and more detailed advice or experiences. In most cases, the underlined link will take you first to an abstract on this website telling you more about the linked document. You may then decide whether to let your browser take you to the full reference for reading, printing or downloading.
IRC's Thematic Overview Papers (TOPs) aim to give their readers two kinds of help:
- Easy access to the main principles of the topic - in this case Sanitation Policies - based on worldwide experiences and views of leading practitioners. (Please note that this TOP is based on the larger EHP document on Guidelines for Assessing National Sanitation Policies [327 KB]);
- Direct links to more detailed explanations and documented experiences of critical aspects of the topic on the world wide web.
Introduction
More than 2.4 billion people currently lack access to adequate sanitation and are forced to dispose of their excreta in unimproved and unsanitary conditions. Those who suffer from the lack of this most basic human need, also tend to be victims of poverty, ill health and an overall poor quality of life.
Sanitation is a critical intervention needed to improve living conditions among the world's poor and to reduce or prevent diarrhoea and other seriously debilitating conditions, especially among children.
The absence of supportive policies to provide the basis for planning and implementing sanitation programmes is a missing link to improving coverage at a large scale. This Thematic Overview Paper (TOP) focuses on policies designed and implemented to effectively close this gap. Its aim is to present an overview of recent experiences and trends along with ready-to-use references to links and important publications on the subject.
- - Download:
- sanpolicy.pdf (111 kB)
