Functional sanitation and toilets help ensure better health and safety of millions of people across the world. Ahead of World Toilet Day on November 19, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recognizes the efforts of the standards community who have worked to achieve cleaner and safer sanitation.
"World Toilet Day," a campaign launched by the World Toilet Organization in 2001, became an official United Nations day in 2013, and serves to inspire action to develop solutions for the global sanitation crisis. The initiative is also intended to help achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which aims to achieve sanitation for all by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 global goals, adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at anhistoric UN Summitdesigned to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all."
The 2019 World Toilet Day Theme is "Leaving No One Behind"
The UN's World Toilet Day website notes that today, 4.2 billion people live without safely managed sanitation. Did you know: Toxins related to poor sanitation can lead to widespread disease epidemics and a surge in crime? People without access to private and clean toilets are more susceptible to violent attacks, especially women and children.
In light of the worldwide issue, the UN site poses the question: "How can anyone lift themselves out of poverty without sanitation? We must expand access to safe toilets and leave no one behind."
Last year, ANSI reported how the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard, ISO 30500, Non-sewered sanitation systems Prefabricated integrated treatment units General safety and performance requirements for design and testing, released in October 2018, supports better and safer toilets in regions that lack the infrastructure that support functioning sewers, plumbing, and electricity.
In 2016, ANSI as the U.S. member body to ISO, twinned with ASN (the National Body of Senegal), to serve as the Secretariat of ISO Project Committee (PC) 305 on Sustainable non-sewered sanitation systems -- the committee responsible for the development of ISO 30500. ISO 30500 aims to reinvent the toilet and set international performance criteria for consumer- level, household scale toilets.
The experts on the committee represented industry, government, academia and non-governmental organizations. ISO PC 305 created the standard to establish a common set of goals that manufacturers can use as they reinvent toilet technology. Since its publication, ANSI has been working to make the standard widely available, promoting national recognition and implementation in regions with vast human population - including China, South Asia, and Africa. Read more about ISO 30500.
Work that supports better sanitation is an ongoing process, and encompasses another standard in development. Together, ANSI and ASN administer the secretariat for ISO Project Committee (PC) 318, which is developing an international standard on fecal sludge treatment systems for communities.
ISO/DIS 31800, Faecal sludge treatment units - Energy independent, prefabricated, community-scale, resource recovery units - Safety and performance requirements, is intended to safely treat fecal sludge in places where neither wastewater systems nor suitable wastewater treatment plants exist. The standard specifies requirements and test methods to ensure safety, performance, and sustainability of prefabricated fecal sludge treatment units that serve approximately (but not limited to) 1,000 to 100,000 people. It is due to be published in 2020.
ISO also highlights another standard that supports better sanitation. ISO 24521, Activities relating to drinking water and wastewater services - Guidelines for the management of basic on-site domestic wastewater services, offers the practical guidance required for designing and building such facilities as well as training up the people who are destined to use them.
Read more about World Toilet Day, and read ANSI's related coverage:
New Non-Sewered Sanitation Systems Standard ISO 30500 Helps Support Safety and Global Sustainability
Celebrate World Environment Day on June 5 (On ISO/DIS 31800)