Sanitation can be defined as the measures, methods, and activities that prevent the transmission of diseases and ensure public health. Specifically, "sanitation" refers to the hygienic principles and practices relating to the safe collection, removal and disposal of human excreta, refuse, and wastewater.

For a household, sanitation refers to the provision and ongoing operation and maintenance of a safe and easily accessible means of disposing of human excreta, garbage, and wastewater, and providing an effective barrier against excreta-related diseases.

The problems that result from inadequate sanitation can be illustrated by the following events in history:

1700 B.C.: Ahead of his time by a few thousand years, King Minos of Crete had running water in his bathrooms in his palace at Knossos. Although there is evidence of plumbing and sewerage systems at several ancient sites, including the cloaca maxima (or great sewer) of ancient Rome, their use did not...