Archaeological and textual detective work is filling in some information about how ancient Romans used and thought about their sewers thousands of years ago.
Public ‘restroom’ is a euphemism of the highest order. We don’t find it restful.
Poor sanitation leads to diseases like malnutrition and stunted growth in children. It also makes them sick and unable to attend school.
Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters
Sanitation is a massive problem in East Africa. On the supply side there are a host of problems which are preventing people from accessing decent sanitation.
The disease can only occur when contaminated water goes up into the nose.
Vladimir Gjorgiev/Shutterstock
Amoebas are ancient bugs that predate multicellular organisms that often hide in water and mud.
Many schools in Kenya force girls to wear light-coloured uniforms. These show menstrual stains more easily, which shames the girls into staying away from school.
Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
The inclusion of menstrual hygiene in the Sustainable Development Goals marks an important step forward, but to what extent will it address the issue of schoolgirl absenteeism?
Improving maternal mortality and ending preventable deaths in children are some of the health targets in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/Flickr
Health has secured its place as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. But without clear mechanisms to report, finance or engage other sectors, could more end up as less?
New Delhi’s Yamuna River, like much of India’s water, is polluted. The world urgently needs low-carbon ways to clean things up.
EPA/Harish Tyagi
Much of the world still lacks access to proper sanitation and clean water - an issue that needs urgent action. But without low-carbon technologies, clean water could come at the expense of the climate.
Millions of people in Africa don’t have access to adequate sanitation.
Shutterstock
Despite improvements, there are still millions of people without adequate sanitation in Africa. Sustainable solutions that can be replicated elsewhere are being developed in South Africa.
If achieved, the huge task of cleaning up India will significantly contribute to improving public health.
Piyal Adhilary/EPA/AAP
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has wowed audiences in Australia during his recent visit and used the occasion to remind people of his plan to provide a toilet at home for all Indians by 2019. The…
Lack of proper sanitation, as in these homes in Dhaka, Bangladesh, creates all sorts of risks to social and economic wellbeing.
It’s 2014. So why do we still need World Toilet Day? Because 2.5 billion people still need one. World Toilet Day remains a critical means to raise awareness globally about one of the many important things…
Any analysis worth its salt of what it means to be poor will include indicators explicitly linked to health – nutrition, for example, or mortality rates. But in reality, the many different aspects of poverty…
What toilet? In this refugee camp, children play in the holes dug for latrines.
Oxfam International
Why does one third of the world’s population have inadequate sanitation? Hopefully I can shed a bit of light on this. You see, my work is shit – literally – which is why I call myself a water, sanitation…
Trouble is brewing underneath the city.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA
London’s sewerage system is one of the wonders of the industrial world, and a prize example of great Victorian feats of engineering. The system was designed by the visionary Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan…
Bodily waste can be an embarrassing subject, but one that most of us can avoid thanks to efficient toilets and sewers. Nevertheless, this embarrassment may be holding back improvements in sanitation where…
Toilets aren’t just a bin for human waste - they’re a receptacle for future fertiliser.
Gates Foundation
What goes down our toilet is commonly viewed as waste. This makes intuitive sense because separating people from their excreta - sanitation - is arguably the single most important public health objective…