Sanitation & Functional Toilets
Keep toilets clean, safe, accessible, supplied and connected to safe waste management.
Define the service failure before selecting infrastructure.
Construction counts hide broken, inaccessible, unsafe or unclean facilities.
A toilet is not safe sanitation if waste leaks or is dumped untreated.
Record state, district, city/block, village/ward or supply zone; season and date; source or asset; affected users; observed service; measurement or sample method; photo/document where safe; and uncertainty. Never imply 100-metre accuracy unless the evidence genuinely supports it.
Test the full source-to-service chain.
Operations budget absent
Treat this as a hypothesis until records, field observation, seasonal evidence and credible alternatives are checked.
Cleaning responsibility unclear
Treat this as a hypothesis until records, field observation, seasonal evidence and credible alternatives are checked.
Water and accessibility designed separately
Treat this as a hypothesis until records, field observation, seasonal evidence and credible alternatives are checked.
Containment chain not verified
Treat this as a hypothesis until records, field observation, seasonal evidence and credible alternatives are checked.
Components that must work together.
Household, public, school and workplace toilets
Define the responsible actor, operating standard, input, handoff, maintenance requirement, failure trigger and evidence record.
Accessible design
Define the responsible actor, operating standard, input, handoff, maintenance requirement, failure trigger and evidence record.
Menstrual hygiene facilities
Define the responsible actor, operating standard, input, handoff, maintenance requirement, failure trigger and evidence record.
Water and cleaning
Define the responsible actor, operating standard, input, handoff, maintenance requirement, failure trigger and evidence record.
Maintenance and grievance response
Define the responsible actor, operating standard, input, handoff, maintenance requirement, failure trigger and evidence record.
Safe containment or sewer connection
Define the responsible actor, operating standard, input, handoff, maintenance requirement, failure trigger and evidence record.
Match intervention to hydrogeology, settlement and service capacity.
Define functionality through availability, cleanliness, privacy, water, safety and accessibility.
Fund service contracts and consumables.
Publish inspection and grievance closure.
Trace waste to sewer, scheduled desludging or treatment.
Diagnose, protect, pilot, measure and institutionalise.
Verify & protect
Confirm the location, affected users, service chain, immediate health or safety risk, responsible agency and existing evidence.
Controlled pilot
Audit and restore a representative set of school, public and household sanitation journeys.
Durable system
Fund operations, preventive maintenance, skilled teams, monitoring, public reporting, correction pathways and independent evaluation.
Measure service and outcomes—not assets alone.
Water interventions can transfer risk across people, places and time.
- RiskUnsafe manual cleaningPrevention · accountable owner · trigger · remedy
- RiskWomen/girls excluded by poor designPrevention · accountable owner · trigger · remedy
- RiskInspection staged temporarilyPrevention · accountable owner · trigger · remedy