The Sanitation Workers Knowledge + Learning Hub is the best source for all current news, trends, articles and updates on sanitation workers rights around the world.
Sanitation workers provide a fundamental public service. Yet they often face extreme health hazards and safety risks on the job. In many developing countries, they are informal workers with no legal protections or rights. With a lack of visibility in society, they can be stigmatized, marginalized and ignored.
Here are the stories of five sanitation workers in their own words.
Introduction to Global Health Promotion addresses a breadth and depth of public health topics that students and emerging professionals in the field must understand as the world's burden of disease changes with non-communicable diseases on the rise in low- and middle-income countries as their middle class populations grow. Now more than ever, we need to provide health advocacy and intervention to …
Purpose: To evaluate the level of accessibility and safety of an existing water and/or sanitation facility and its surrounds, and to identify possible changes or improvements.
Diversity message: Simple changes to facilities and their surrounds can improve their usability for a wide range of users, thus avoiding the need for separate ‘special’ provision.
Safety message: To consider any risks …
‘Advocacy' is a set of coordinated activities (ideally contributing to a broader strategy) that seeks to ensure the protection of persons who are of concern to UNHCR by promoting changes that bring policy, practice or law into line with international standards. UNHCR and its partners undertake advocacy of various kinds, including media campaigns, public speaking, commissioning and publishing …
The Fit for School (FIT) programme integrates school health and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene interventions, which are implemented by the Ministries of Education in four Southeast Asian countries. This paper describes the findings of a Health Outcome Study, which aimed to assess the two-year effect of the FIT programme on the parasitological, weight, and oral health status of children attending …
The thirteenth issue of the African Water Association (AfWA) technical and bilingual magazine, Share Water, is now available. It provides solutions in terms of guidelines and tools likely to help manage the WASH businesses efficiently and mitigate the shortage of water supply, for improved access to sustainable water and sanitation services for all in Africa.
Among these solutions, the water …
The rural water supply scheme (WSS) in Sri Lanka is threatened by multiple climate risks such as flash floods, droughts, landslides, and salinity intrusion. Those rural water supply schemes are managed by Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Local Authorities and offer water to 12% of the people who live in marginalized areas through piped systems. Even though Water Safety Planning (WSP) is …
A recent Lancet paper ranked handwashing in 21st place as a leading cause of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) globally, stating: “The finding that no handwashing with soap is a global risk present in all regions is a reminder that this nexus of risks is relevant to all countries, not just the poorest.”
As such, it is important that we continue to seek to both learn more about …
A pre-recorded conversation between Dr Jen Barr and consultant, researcher and photographer Dr CS Sharada Prasad, who is behind many of the striking images used by international agencies to highlight the everyday lives of sanitation workers (especially those involved in manual pit latrine, septic tank, sewer, drain or dry latrine cleaning) across India.
In this recording, Dr Prasad reflects …
The purpose of this guide is to support Plan International and its partners in developing or strengthening child friendly feedback mechanisms in humanitarian settings. The step-by-step guidance and accompanying tools help humanitarian teams to design and implement feedback mechanisms in collaboration with children, young people and communities.
German-supported projects in Nepal, Albania and the Philippines are involving local social media influencers and celebrities to break down taboos around menstrual health and hygiene. To great effect! GIZ’s short film ‘Tackling Taboos’ has been nominated for the WHO film festival ‘Health for all’. Shortlisted out of more than 1000 entries, the film is in the final 70 — and the only one …
This session explores the changing nature of sanitation work from a global and historical perspective. It sets out to challenge misconceptions that sanitation work (including hazardous forms) is confined to the so-called 'Global South', or that the 'Global North' has found the 'solutions' to safe sanitation for all. Drawing on experience in India, Pakistan, the USA and Nigeria, the session …
The GIZ Programme WatSSUP operates on the nexus of humanitarian and development work and focuses on both refugee and host communities. The programme is implemented under the special initiative on forced displacement of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ in line with Germany’s commitment to international burden and responsibility …
Decentralization in Benin. In February 1990, the Conférence de Forces Vives de la Nation defined the Government of Benin’s plan to grant communes more legal and financial autonomy. The Beninese government outlined a vision that “Benin is organized into autonomous spaces, called communes, intended as public spaces of freedom, as initiatives, as an exercise of citizens' rights and …
Ilam Municipality is in Ilam district, Koshi province of Nepal. The municipality was established in 1958; one of the oldest municipalities in Nepal. It has 12 wards and covers the area of 173.32 sq km. It is surrounded by Maijogmai rural Municipality and Suryodaya Municipality in the east, Sandakpur Municipality and Panchthar Distict in the north, Deumai Municipality in the west, and Mai and …
"This operator instruction manual is the reference document for the operation and maintenance of the equipment and processes that comprise the tiger bio filter (TBF) based
faecal sludge treatment plant (FSTP) at Wayanad, Kerala. This manual will enable the plant operator and helper to run the plant smoothly and assist during site operations and maintenance work."
This competency framework is designed to be a tool for emptying service providers, and the capacity development organizations that work with them, to understand the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to deliver a high-quality service.
This competency framework can be used by:
1. Emptiers and capacity development organizations to structure professional development activities for …
*French with English translation*
This session examines the intersectional dimensions of sanitation work relating to gender, caste, class, race and age (including inter-generational change). The speakers cover particular challenges for women sanitation workers in India, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar and Senegal, and explore ways in which to visibilise often hidden or unseen working practices and …
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