[2] Urine and feces enter the pit through a drop hole in the floor, which might be connected to a toilet seat or squatting pan for user comfort.

[7] When properly built and maintained, pit latrines can decrease the spread of disease by reducing the amount of human feces in the environment from open defecation.

[4] The World Health Organization recommends that pits be built a reasonable distance from the house, ideally balancing easy access against smell.

[14] The Indian government has been running a campaign called "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan" (Clean India Mission in English) since 2014 in order to eliminate open defecation by convincing people in rural areas to purchase, construct and use toilets, mainly pit latrines.

A lid on the drop hole keeps light out of the pit and helps to stop flies and odors entering the toilet's superstructure.

[citation needed] On top of the drop hole there can either be nothing (this is the simplest form of a pit latrine) or there can be a squatting pan, seat (pedestal) or bench which can be made of concrete, ceramic, plastic or wood.

A shelter, shed, small building or "super-structure" houses the squatting pan or toilet seat and provides privacy and protection from the weather for the user.

[6] For this reason, it is difficult to estimate the safe distance between a pit and a water source – a problem that also applies to septic tanks.

Detailed guidelines have been developed to estimate safe distances to protect groundwater sources from pollution from on-site sanitation.

In addition to that, household plots are of a limited size and therefore pit latrines are often built much closer to groundwater wells than what can be regarded as safe.

[citation needed] However, no general statement should be made regarding the minimum lateral separation distances required to prevent contamination of a well from a pit latrine.

Elevated nitrate levels in drinking water from private wells is thought to have caused cases of blue baby syndrome in children in rural areas of Romania and Bulgaria in Eastern Europe.

Pit lining materials can include brick, rot-resistant timber, concrete, stones, or mortar plastered onto the soil.

[7] This partial lining is recommended for those pit latrine used by a great number of people – such as a public restroom in rural areas, or in a woodland park or busy lay-by, rest stop or other similarly busy location – or where the soils are unstable in order to increase permanence and allow emptying of the pit without it collapsing easily.

[30] There is a risk of groundwater pollution when pits are located in areas with a high or variable water table, and/or fissures or cracks in the bedrock.

It is normally recommended to have a minimum horizontal distance of 30 metres (yards) between them to limit exposing the water source to microbial contamination.

[32] the Government's Swachh bharat Mission primarily used twin pit toilets since they were easier and safer to remove and clean.

An alternative to U-trap or siphon designs is to incorporate a counter-weighted trap door mechanism that provides an air-tight water seal in the closed position.

[33] The addition of a small amount of water (generally less than 500 ml; 1 pint) overcomes the counterweight and allows the fecal matter to enter the pit.

Also referred to as the "cat method," it is formed by simply digging a hole in the ground just large enough to hold the feces from one defecation event.

However, in many developing countries safe fecal sludge management practices are lacking and causing public health risks as well as environmental pollution.

The time it takes to fill the pit depends on its volume, the number of users, the soil permeability and groundwater level.

[37][38] Fecal sludge that has been removed from pits manually or with vacuum tankers is often dumped into the environment indiscriminately, leading to what has been called "institutionalized open defecation".

The number of viable helminth eggs is commonly used as an indicator organism to make a statement about the pathogen load in a fecal sludge sample.

[39][40] Wood ash, leaves, soil, compost, or sawdust can be sprinkled on top of the feces to decrease the smell in the case of pit latrines without a water seal.

[42] In India, Japan's LIXIL Group has supplied tens of thousands of twin pit toilet systems that costs $10 or less apiece (in 2018).

As such, many government agencies and NGOs promote the construction of pit latrines in rural areas (groundwater pollution can be an issue).

The community-led total sanitation approach results in the spontaneous construction and sustained use of pit latrines rather than open defecation.

The Indian government has been running the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) since 2014 in order to eliminate open defecation and to convince people in rural areas to purchase, construct and use toilets, mainly pit latrines.

[20][21] In rural India, there are sometimes cultural preferences for open defecation and these may be difficult to overcome with unattractive toilet designs, such as pit latrines.