Millennium Development Goals

The term "sanitation" is applied to a wide range of subjects such as: * Improved sanitation - refers to the management of human faeces at the household level. This terminology is the indicator used to describe the target of the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation, by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. * On-site sanitation - the collection and treatment of waste is done where it is deposited. Examples are the use of pit latrines, septic tanks, and Imhoff tanks.

* Food sanitation - refers to the hygienic measures for ensuring food safety. * Environmental sanitation - the control of environmental factors that form links in disease transmission. Subsets of this category are solid waste management, water and wastewater treatment,industrial waste treatment and noise and pollution control. * Ecological sanitation - an approach that tries to emulate nature through the recycling of nutrients and water from human and animal wastes in a hygienically safe manner.

Sanitation can be of three types
Personal sanitation
Sanitation at home
Sanitation at surroundings.
“Wash your hands before you eat... give those germs a clean sweep.” 1) Personal sanitation :-
a) Bathing regularly
b) Washing your hands after using washroom
c) Washing your hands before having food
d) Cutting your hairs clean
e) Cutting your nails & keeping them clean
f) Drinking clean water,using chlorine tablets or boiling it

2) Sanitation at home
a) Keeping your home clean
b) Keeping washroom at home clean
c) Using washroom rather than going in open
d) Eating healthy & nutritious food
e) Washing fruits before eating
3) Surroundings
a) Saniataion at school
b) Sitting on clean benches
c) Cleanliness while playing at playgrounds
d) Dressing/cleaning your wounds
e) Don’t play at dirty places
f) Stay away from hazardous chemicals

Why sanitation is important
1) To keep you healthy
2) You will smell good
3) Waste attracts disease carrying hosts like rats & other scavengers.

4) In our country most of the diseases are caused due to contaminated water and poor sanitation. In tribal areas, there are shortage of water supply and lack of awareness about proper sanitation till today. People depend on the water of polluted rivers or ponds and suffer from lack of sanitation. These cause highly infectious diseases such as - diarrhea, malaria, cholera, jaundice, plague etc. If we follow clean sanitation and use purified water then we can easily control and avoid many of the above diseases.