Improved Sanitation

An improved sanitation facility is defined as one that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact.

To allow for international comparability of estimates for monitoring the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Health Organization/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation defines "improved" sanitation as follows:

  • Flush toilet
  • Connection to a piped sewer system
  • Connection to a septic system
  • Flush / pour-flush to a pit pit latrine
  • Ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine
  • Composting toilet
  • Some special cases

Sanitation facilities that are not considered as "improved" are:

  • Public or shared latrine
  • Flush/pour flush to elsewhere (not into a pit, septic tank, or sewer)
  • Pit latrine without slab
  • Open pit latrine
  • Bucket latrines
  • Hanging toilet / latrine
  • No facilities / bus / field

Famous quotes containing the word improved:

    Now I thought I would observe how he spent his Sunday. While I and my companion were looking about at the trees and river, he went to sleep. Indeed, he improved every opportunity to get a nap, whatever the day.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)