Sanitation worker
Additionally, they may be at risk of injury from heavy labor, poor and prolonged postures and positions and confined spaces, as well as psychosocial stress.
In many developing countries, sanitation workers are "more vulnerable due to unregulated or unenforced environmental and labor protections, and lack of occupational health and safety".
A report by World Bank, International Labour Organization, WaterAid and WHO from 2019 defines "sanitation workers" to include toilet cleaners and caretakers in domestic, public, and institutional settings; those who empty pits from pit latrines and vaults of septic tanks and other fecal sludge handlers; those who clean sewers and manholes; and those who work at sewage treatment plants and fecal sludge treatment plants and disposal sites.
[10] Sanitation workers who are employed by the government usually have comparatively good infrastructure, tools and personal protective equipment (PPE), and face only moderate health and safety risks.
[4] Estimates at country level include: Sanitation workers provide a critical public service, essential for our daily lives and the environment.
Yet their working conditions expose them to the worst consequences of poor sanitation such as debilitating infections, injuries, social stigma and even death every day.
[1]: 7 In the case of India, the work of sanitation workers (especially those without formal employment contracts) has been described as: Drudgery, dangerous, dirty and dehumanizing.
[14] The five hidden dangers for people working as sanitation workers include health hazards, discrimination, psychological problems, low wages and lack of social security coverage.
[18] Many sanitation workers in developing countries work without any form of personal protective equipment (PPE) and no or minimal formal training.
[1]: 9 Physical and medical conditions directly associated with sanitation work that is carried out unsafely can include: "headaches, dizziness, fever, fatigue, asthma, gastroenteritis, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, cryptosporidiosis, schistosomiasis, eye and skin burn and other skin irritation, musculoskeletal disorders (including back pain), puncture wounds and cuts, blunt force".
[4] There are research gaps in characterizing the health risks of sanitation workers in three main areas: "low-income countries, among women and those under informal employment".
[1]: 10 Sanitation workers, particularly those in information employment who manually empty septic tanks and pit latrines, are often subjected to social stigma for their work.
This includes standard operating procedures, enforcement of laws, personal protective equipment (PPE) for all aspects of sanitation work.
Concerns like fair wages, medical and maternity benefits (for women staff), safety equipment, respect and security of employment must be addressed.
[14] To reduce this risk and protect against illness, measures have been proposed for occupational health: Basic hygiene practices for workers (handwashing etc.
Towns with sanitation systems based on pail closets (bucket toilets in outhouses) relied on frequent emptying, performed by workers driving "honeywagons", a precursor to the vacuum truck now used to pump out septage from septic tanks.
Examples by country: Improving the working conditions of sanitation workers is also important for reaching at least four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.
They also aim to design projects and processes that improve their working environment and conditions, and help to provide the required investments to support their enterprises.
They enter inspection holes and sewers to fix or unblock them and then transport the fecal waste to treatment plants, while maintaining the sanitation facilities.
If septic tanks and pit latrines are not emptied regularly, waste flows into the groundwater, contaminating the environment and surrounding water supplies.
[32] Programs like Swachh Bharat exist to reduce caste-based discrimination in India, but so far have proven to be ineffective due to increased deaths of sanitation workers.
[1]: 35 Typically, women are involved in the containment process since it requires fewer technical skills and a lower degree of technology, resulting in employment as school toilet and drain cleaners.
The official definition in Indian law is "manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling, human excreta in an insanitary latrine or in an open drain or pit".
[39] Furthermore, based on urban Nord Department latrine users, the equivalent sanitation coverage, provided by CBS services, would support over 500 safe excreta-handling livelihoods.
Thus, a transition to CBS would replace unsafe labor conditions with safe and reliable livelihoods and potentially increase employment opportunities while dramatically reducing exposure to sanitation workers.
These changes would lift multiple community members from circumstances undermining the human right to sanitation, as well as safe and dignified employment.
[51] CBS is gaining recognition around the world, and recent research has taken on the question of scaling these operations and integrating them with inclusive sanitation planning.
