Comments on leachpit pourflush latrines

The strategy for leach pit pourflush latrines has been conceived to provide on-site low-cost sanitation systems for the poor to improve their quality of life and control water-borne diseases. Human excreta is a reservoir of pathogens and viruses. Indiscriminate and open defecation is a serious pollution source affecting human health and has thus become a great concern in the field of environmental sanitation and public health worldwide. With time, the gap between the growth of population and provision of sanitary latrines appears to be divergent amongst the economically weaker sections. Concerted efforts are being made to close this gap, but the peoples’ response is found to be not as strong as predicted. In the absence of low cost solutions, both in construction and maintenance, the sanitation approach to the community will be ineffective. Thus the choice of leachpit latrines needs to be popularized, with remedial measures for its short-comings, as contemplated and presented in this text.