Basic Water and Sanitation Terms

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Can I get anyone to explain the difference between sanitation and hygiene?

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9 Answers

  1. I understand these definition in a larger sense:

    Sanitation means the, let's say, "controlled", i.e. safe, disposal of solid and liquid waste, e.g. black and grey water from the household, but from commercial or industrial sources as well. This includes needed infrastructure and management systems from household to communal to national level.

    Hygiene means in the first line personal hygiene, i.e. washing, brushing teeth, safe storage of food items and drinking water. In a larger sense this includes household facilities enabling a good hygiene practice, e.g. toilets, latrines, washing places, safe storage containers etc.

    In a still larger sense, environmental hygiene is used to describe infrastructure and management systems dealing with all kinds of waste in settlement areas and the safe disposal of such waste. This reflects on personal behaviour (littering, clean households and concessions), on small-scale public behaviour (clean streets and public places through controlled disposal of liquid and solid waste) to a -generally- communal role in the collection and disposal of waste. It includes needed infrastructure and waste collection and disposal devices. 

  3. Hello this is a very good question that deserves reflection. there is a difference and it is huge because sanitation and hygiene are two distinct vectors. Except that sanitation means fecal matter and that it is considered an impurity, a stain, a dirt, we can think that it is the cause of all our ills, in addition to its unpleasant olfactory emissions . For proof the managers of the sanitation are unable to find an effective solution to the elimination of the fecal matter. In our environment, all excrement eventually disappear, the dung dung, everything that comes from the digestive system, mother nature, eliminates them. The man can not definitively eliminate the fecal matter and by obligation, produces more than 45 Million tons of excrement mud. Yet sanitation biotechnology manages to eliminate them entirely, without any production of sludge residue or odor. In reality, sanitation as it is designed transforms feces into putrid mud, a poison for humans and their environment. it took only one step to make the connection between fecal matter and hygiene where there is really no relation. hygiene of life, food hygiene, are human concepts.

  4. Bonjour

    ceci est une très bonne question qui mérite réflexion.

    il y a bien une différence et elle est énorme car l'assainissement et l'hygiène sont bien deux vecteurs distincts.

    Sauf que comme l'assainissement veut dire matière fécale et que celle ci est considérée comme une impureté, une souillure, une saleté, on est à même de penser qu'elle est la cause de tous nos maux, en plus de ses émanations olfactives désagréables.

    Pour preuve les gérants de l'assainissement sont dans l'incapacité de trouver une solution efficace à l'élimination de la matière fécale.

    Dans notre environnement, tous les excréments finissent par disparaitre, les crottes les bouses, tout ce qui vient des appareils digestifs, mère nature, les élimine.

    L'homme n'arrive pas à supprimer définitivement la matière fécale et  par obligation, produit plus de 45 Millions de tonnes de boues d'excréments.

    Pourtant  biotechnologie d'assainissement  arrive à les éliminer entièrement, sans aucune production de résidus de boues ni d'odeur.

    En réalité l'assainissement tel qu'il est conçu transforme les excréments en boue putride, un véritable poison pour l'homme et son environnement. 

    il n'a fallu qu'un pas pour faire le lien entre la matière fécale et l'hygiène là ou il n'y a vraiment aucun rapport.

    l'hygiène de vie, l'hygiène alimentaire, sont des concepts humains.

     

     

     

  6. Sanitation is for the people/families.... the technical site and the maintenance of those...Hygiene is the people themselves....manage themselves in use of those sanitation, handling of before and after use.....with poor hygiene is poor health....poor sanitation gives health risks....sanitation facilitations....and hygiene behaviour...anyway thats my view..keep up the hygiene education in schools...

  7. Here is the WHO definition of sanitation and hygiene, from Wikipedia:
    "Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feces. The word 'sanitation' also refers to the maintenance of hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection and wastewater disposal."

    Whereas sanitation thus relates to external tools especially linked to excreta, wastewater and waste, hygiene "refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." This includes personal care, general cleanliness, cleaning practices, food handling and treatment, medical practices related to cleanliness and prevention of disease spreading, etc.

  8. Sanitation is the effective use of tools and actions that keep our environment healthy. These include latrines or toilets to manage waste, food preparation, washing stations, effective drainage and other such mechanisms.

    Hygiene is a set of personal practices that contribute to good health. It includes things like hand-washing, bathing and cutting hair/nails. Hand-washing is the single most important activity we can all do to encourage the stop of disease.

    The difference is subtle but important. While both sanitation and hygiene are related, we must be taught both effective tools and effective behaviors to protect our health. Imagine how important these can be in places without a toilet or where hand washing has never been learned!