page_title: Fecal sludge management
section_title: Rural areas
hierarchical_section_title: Fecal sludge management / Current practice / Rural areas
caption_attribution_description: English: A toilet emptier passing the bucket full of faecal sludge to his assistant. The man works without gloves, boots and mask, because these are too expensive. Additionally, boots would be useless as in the beginning of the emptying process the sludge normally reaches up too the emptiers' knees. Picture taken by Florian Erzinger between August 2007 to February 2008
context_page_description: Fecal sludge management is the collection, transport, and treatment of fecal sludge from pit latrines, septic tanks or other onsite sanitation systems. Fecal sludge is a mixture of human excreta, water and solid wastes that are disposed of in pits, tanks or vaults of onsite sanitation systems. Fecal sludge that is removed from septic tanks is called septage.
  FSM is necessary in densely populated areas where a proportion of the population is not connected to a sewerage network, and the covering and rebuilding of pit latrines is not possible. This is the case in most urban areas in developing countries, but such services are also used in developed countries where sewerage systems are unavailable. FSM services are usually provided by formal and informal private sector services providers, local governments, water authorities and utilities. However, in many developing countries FSM services are often unavailable, or if they are available are often informal, unregulated, unhygienic and unsafe. This can lead to surface water and groundwater pollution, the spreading of pathogens into the environment and adverse public health impacts.
context_section_description: Rural areas with low population density may not need formal FSM services if the local practice is to cover and rebuild latrines when they fill up. However, if this is not possible, rural areas often lack treatment facilities within a reasonable (say 30 minutes drive) distance; are difficult for tankers to access and often have limited demand for emptying making transport and treatment uneconomic, and unaffordable for most people. Therefore, options such as relocating latrines on-site, double (alternating) pit or Arborloo toilets could be considered. Also sharing decentralized FSM services and sludge treatment between nearby villages, or direct safe removal burial of waste could be considered and organized.
caption: Bad practice example: A worker removing fecal sludge out of the pit of a pit latrine without wearing any personal protective equipment (in a village in Burkina Faso).
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