page_title: Emergency sanitation
section_title: Challenges
hierarchical_section_title: Emergency sanitation / Challenges
caption_attribution_description: English: Emergency pit lining kits to avoid collapsing of pits. Modular corrugated plastic pit liners Photo by: Jenny Rhode, 2011
context_page_description: Emergency sanitation is the management and technical processes required to provide sanitation in emergency situations. These can include man-made or natural disasters. Emergency sanitation is also required during humanitarian relief operations for refugees and Internally Displaced Persons. "Sanitation" normally refers to the management of excreta, with "Environmental sanitation" also including stormwater management, solid waste disposal, vector control and air pollution.
  Providing showers and handwashing facilities is also part of emergency sanitation during all phases.
  The immediate sanitation phase focuses on a providing proper waste management resources. The main course of action during this stage is reducing open defecation. It is implemented as a course of initial action in emergency situations and it lasts from one to three months. Toilets provided might include very basic latrines, pit latrines, bucket toilets, container-based toilets or chemical toilets.
  The short term sanitation phase provides technology to contain fecal matter for as long as six months. 75% of the affected population have access to such resources and 75% of the collected waste is disposed of properly.
context_section_description: The provision of sanitation programmes is usually more challenging than water supply as it provides a limited choice of technologies. This is exacerbated by the overwhelming and diverse needs of WASH.
  Challenges with excreta disposal in emergencies include:
  Building Latrines in areas where pits cannot be dug, desludging latrines, no-toilet options and the final treatment or disposal of the fecal sludge.
  Weak community participation and finding hygiene promotion designs that are suitable for a given context to make the WASH interventions sustainable.
  Newly arriving IDP or refugee populations can usually only be settled in less than ideal areas, such as land that is prone to regular flooding or which is very dry and with rocky ground. This makes the provision of safe sanitation facilities and other infrastructure very difficult.
  Women, children, the disabled, and other disadvantaged groups in the context of a sanitation crisis require specialized accommodations to fit their needs.
  In long running emergencies, the safe decommissioning or desludging of previously quickly built sanitation facilities can also become a serious challenge.
  In impoverished parts of the world, finding and allocating the funds and resources to implement technologies.
  Humanitarian actors need to understand the importance of better preparation and resilience and the need for exit strategies and have consideration on the environment.
caption: Emergency pit lining kits, suitable for areas with high water table
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