Different sanitation types

The idea of sanitation is to keep the human faeces separately so that they do not cause sickness for people. There are different sanitation types available. This material concentrates on four of them.

Water closet

Water Closet (WC) is a toilet that disposes human waste by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location [1] 300 million people use water closet with proper waste water treatment. 800 million people use water closet without proper sewage or waste water treatment. [2]

Composting latrine

Different kinds of composting latrines have the same function: to compost the latrine waste. “The models vary between simple composting pit latrines to urine separating dry latrines [3]”.

Pit latrine

“A pit dug to ground remains as one of the most simple and used latrine type in the world until today. There are tens of different types of pit latrine solutions from a very simple to a rather developed model.” [2] 2700 million people use a simple latrine pit. [2]

No sanitation

“2400 million people have no access to hygiene means of personal sanitation.” [4]



Sources and more information:

[1] Wikipedia: Flush Toilet

[2]Käymäläseura Huussi ry: Sanitaatio kaikille!


[3] Huuhtanen, S. & Laukkanen, A. 2006. A Guide to Sanitation and Hygiene for Those Working in Developing Countries.

[4] WHO: Sanitation and hygiene promotion: programming guidance