Emergency sanitation

Open defecation along the river bank in Burundi

The term "Emergency" is perceived differently by different people and organisations. In a general sense, an emergency may be considered to be a phenomenon originating from a man-made and/or natural disaster which results in a serious, usually sudden threat to the health or well-being of the affected community which relies on external assistance to easily cope up with the situation.[3] There are different categories of emergency depending on its time frame, whether it lasts for few weeks, several months or years.[3]The number of people who are and will be affected by catastrophes (human crisis and natural disasters), which are increasing in magnitude and frequency, is rapidly increasing. The affected people are subjected to such dangers as temporary homelessness and risks to life and health.[4]

Emergency sanitation is put into place to create suitable living conditions for populations who lack proper water resources and to decrease the spread of waterborne illnesses. In June of 2012, a conference was held with various relief agencies and government officials in order to address proper management of human fecal matter along with the public health of people struck with disaster. [5]They concluded that the current solutions to improper sanitation were not up to date nor the best of quality. The decision to utilize technology to track human feces collection along with the creation of emergency sanitation coordination centers and the use of smart toilets were among a few of the implemented policies.[6]

The Sphere (organization) standards have three standards relating to excreta management.,[7] namely

• Excreta management standard 3.1: Environment free from human excreta. All excreta is safely contained on-site to avoid contamination of the natural, living, learning, working and communal environments
• Excreta management standard 3.2: Access to and use of toilets. People have adequate, appropriate and acceptable toilets to allow rapid, safe and secure access at all times
• Excreta management standard 3.3: Management and maintenance of excreta collection, transport, disposal and treatment. Excreta management facilities, infrastructure and systems are safely managed and maintained to ensure service provision and minimum impact on the surrounding environment.

Emergency pit latrines with bathing shelters built in the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in northern Uganda

To address the problem of public health and the spread of dangerous diseases that come as a result of lack of sanitation and open defecation, humanitarian actors focus on the construction of, for example, pit latrines and the implementation of hygiene promotion programs.[8]

The supply of drinking water in an urban-setting emergency has been improved by the introduction of standardized, rapid deployment kits. Alternatively, germ-infected water can be sanitized by adding disinfectants, boiling and/or filtering. If the water supply contains toxic chemicals it cannot be made safe to drink.[9]

In the immediate emergency phase, the focus is on managing open defecation, and toilet technologies might include very basic trench latrines, pit latrines, bucket toilets, container-based toilets, chemical toilets. For short-term emergencies there should be an approximate of 1 latrine or toilet for every 50 people, and work should be done with the goal of eventually reducing this amount to 20 people per latrine/toilet if possible.[10] The short term phase might also involve technologies such as urine-diverting dry toilets, septic tanks, decentralized wastewater systems.

In urban emergencies, the main focus is usually on a quick rehabilitation and extension of existing services such as sewer-lines and waste-water treatment plants. This can also include the installation of sewerage pumping stations to improve or extend services.

The creation of provisional hand washing stations or the distribution of hand sanitizer (that contains 60% of alcohol or more) are put into practice so that people keep their hands clean and thus eliminate the propagation of germs.[11]

Information on health care can be provided to the affected population in their respective languages, including instructions on how to use latrines efficiently. Further efforts can be made to help educate individuals who are not able to read the health communication materials.[10]

The emergency response often has to differ greatly based on the setting it takes place.

Emergency pit lining kits, suitable for areas with high water table

The provision of sanitation programmes is usually more challenging than water supply as it provides a limited choice of technologies.[8][16] This is exacerbated by the overwhelming and diverse needs of WASH.[16]

Challenges with excreta disposal in emergencies include:

• Building Latrines in areas where pits cannot be dug, desludging latrines, no-toilet options and the final treatment or disposal of the fecal sludge.[17]
• Weak community participation and finding hygiene promotion designs that are suitable for a given context to make the WASH interventions sustainable.
• Newly arriving IDP or refugee populations can usually only be settled in less than ideal areas, such as land that is prone to regular flooding or which is very dry and with rocky ground. This makes the provision of safe sanitation facilities and other infrastructure very difficult.
• Women, children, the disabled, and other disadvantaged groups in the context of a sanitation crisis require specialized accommodations to fit their needs.
• In long running emergencies, the safe decommissioning or desludging of previously quickly built sanitation facilities can also become a serious challenge.
• In impoverished parts of the world, finding and allocating the funds and resources to implement technologies.
• Humanitarian actors need to understand the importance of better preparation and resilience and the need for exit strategies and have consideration on the environment.[17]

• Self-supply of water and sanitation