Bucket toilet
Where people do not have access to improved sanitation – particularly in low-income urban areas of developing countries – an unimproved bucket toilet may be better than open defecation.
[2] However, the unimproved bucket toilet may carry significant health risks compared to an improved sanitation system.
[3] The bucket toilet system, with collection organised by the municipality, used to be widespread in wealthy countries; in Australia it persisted into the second half of the 20th century.
Bucket toilets are used in households[1] and even in health care facilities[4] in some low- and middle- income countries where people do not have access to improved sanitation.
Instead, the users may place some dry material in the base of the bucket (newspaper, sawdust, leaves, straw, or similar) in order to facilitate easier emptying.
Bucket toilets have been historically common in cold climates where installing running water can be difficult and expensive and subject to freezing-related pipe breakage, for example in Alaska and rural areas of Canada and Russia.
[8] It is promoted by the volunteer advocacy group PHLUSH (Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human) for reasons of safety, affordability, and matching ecological sanitation principles.
[citation needed] An unimproved, open bucket in which excreta are not covered by carbon matter does not offer much protection to the user from the pathogens in the feces, which can lead to significant health risks.
Flies can access the contents unless it is kept securely covered (e.g., by a toilet lid and/or adequate carbon matter).
Unhygienic emptying and disposal practices add further opportunities for pathogens to be spread,[3] for example, if the bucket is not cleaned after each use or if a liner is not used.
Container-based sanitation systems have superficial similarities with bucket toilets but use a rigorous approach regarding safety of the user and of the staff who is handling the collected excreta.
[12] Although bucket toilet systems are now rare in developed countries, particularly where sewers are common, basic forms of sanitation were widely used until the mid 20th century.
[citation needed] The system of municipal collection was widespread in Australia; "dunny cans" persisted well into the second half of the twentieth century.
[24] They were also relatively common in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut[25] of Canada, but by now they have mostly been replaced with indoor plumbing and sewage pump-out tanks.
[31] Prior to the introduction of mains sewerage, most houses had a Pail closet which is a bucket toilet in a dedicated outbuilding.
In larger towns and cities a bucket collection service was operated, while in rural areas a 'lat pit' or burial was common.
Local Authority bucket collection services were discontinued in the post war years as sewers were extended to nearly all built up areas, and most rural locations installed either septic tanks or cesspits In some regions, the term "honey bucket" is used (for example in Alaska), see also honeywagon (a vehicle which collects human excreta for disposal elsewhere).
