What Do You Mean by Sanitation?
Sanitation describes the factors that affect people's health related to drinking water and the "treatment and disposal of human faeces and sewage." By creating a sanitary environment that hinders the spread of diseases, mainly through the faecal-oral pathway, sanitation systems seek to protect human health. All the locations are crowded with people when we visit them, whether it be a market square, a park, an airport, a hospital, a theatre, a train station, or a bus stop.
Sanitation in Public Places
Bus terminals, train stations, and fairgrounds are public gathering locations where proper sanitation and hygiene facilities should be present. The government has placed sufficient restrooms and trash cans in most public areas. When offering public restrooms in areas with a large number of people, the following factors should be taken into account.
There should be sufficient restrooms with soap and hand washing facilities. In these facilities, cleanliness and hygiene should be upheld.
The number of trash cans should be sufficient. The correct and routine disposal of trash is required. It shouldn't be allowed to build up as it can draw flies and other pests.
Health and hygiene should be promoted straightforwardly and appealingly using posters, hoardings, and other types of advertising in public spaces. People should be educated on fundamental hygienic practices, including hand washing, using trash cans and restrooms, etc.
Sanitation in Rural Areas
Most people in developing and impoverished nations lack access to toilets, bathrooms, and functional drainage systems in their homes and public spaces. Approximately 70% of people in our nation are considered to be poor. There are no toilets in their residences. Both men and women use the restrooms in public.
They defecate in fields, railroad tracks, riverbeds, and vacant ground. These waste products in the open fields damage surface and groundwater when they mix with rainwater and enter the soil. People that drink this contaminated water become ill with a variety of water-borne illnesses, including dysentery, typhoid, cholera, polio, meningitis, hepatitis, etc.
How to Maintain Sanitation in Public Places
The local municipality is in charge of upholding sanitary conditions in public areas, but we can also support their efforts. By adopting some basic habits, we can improve sanitation in public areas:
Do not discard trash in public areas, including paper, food scraps, bags, empty plastic water bottles, etc.
It is required to put trash in the proper trash cans. However, if there isn't a trash can nearby, we must bring it home and put it in the trash can.
We shouldn't spit in public spaces.
After eating a banana, you are not permitted to discard the peel in a public area or on the side of the road.
Never relieve beside a roadside.
Importance of Sanitation
In public spaces, it's crucial to practice good hygiene since dirt can spread contamination. Insects and mosquitoes can breed in wastewater that has been left outside. Diseases like cholera and dysentery are primarily brought on by a lack of hygiene. Waste production is a necessary component of human activities. However, we can control the quantity and quality of garbage produced. We can assist with proper waste disposal as well.
Hygiene vs Sanitation
Both phrases essentially apply to illness prevention and health promotion. Hygiene and the human body are commonly connected. We use the word "hygiene" for our physical well-being when we wash our teeth, take regular baths, and perform other similar activities. The most common measure to stop the spread of microorganisms, which falls under the heading of hygiene, is handwashing.
In contrast, "sanitation" refers to removing trash, including human and environmental waste. There are many distinct forms of sanitation, such as basic sanitation, which deals with handling human waste like faeces; on-site sanitation, which describes how people handle and dispose of various types of waste; food sanitation, which deals with treating food appropriately; environmental sanitation, which includes industrial sanitation; and ecological sanitation.
Key Features
Sanitation is the term used to describe issues with public health related to drinking water and the "treatment and disposal of human faeces and sewage.
Bus terminals, train stations, and fairgrounds are examples of public gathering locations where proper sanitation and hygiene facilities should be present.
Most people in developing and impoverished nations lack access to toilets, bathrooms, and functional drainage systems in their homes and public spaces.
By not littering and placing trash in trash cans, each individual can contribute significantly to reducing and managing waste. Excreta must be properly disposed of.
Encourage others to produce less garbage, to dispose of it properly, etc.
FAQs on Sanitation at Public Places
1. Which program is launched by the Indian government to spread awareness for sanitisation among the people?
On October 2, 2014, the Prime Minister of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission to accelerate efforts to attain universal sanitation coverage and focus on sanitation. Under the mission, all villages, Gram Panchayats, Districts, States, and Union Territories in India must proclaim themselves "open-defecation free" (ODF) by October 2, 2019.
2. Which colour trash cans are used to dispose of nonbiodegradable waste?
Non-biodegradable waste would go in the blue bins, while residents would be urged to place biodegradable trash in the green container.
3. What is the role of an active citizen in sanitisation?
Every citizen has a duty to safeguard the environment and make it better. Everyone has a duty to safeguard water resources and maintain decent hygiene. We can assist with proper waste disposal as well.
