Sanitation services are necessary to support urban stability, enable social balance, economic growth and development and are imperative for the improvement of urban public services. In the absence of proper sanitation, people suffer from high levels of infectious, contagious, water borne, air borne and vector borne diseases leading to high incidences of morbidity and mortality. This directly affects the ability of a country to maintain an efficient economy and implies great personal suffering among infected individuals and their families.

 A Pour Flush Toilet is like a regular Flush Toilet except that instead of the water coming from the cistern above, it is poured in by the user. When the water supply is not continuous, any cistern Flush Toilet can become a Pour Flush Toilet.

Just like a traditional Flush Toilet, there is a water seal that prevents odours and flies from coming back up the pipe.

A public toilet (also called a bathroom, restroom, comfort room, powder room, toilet room, washroom, water closet, W.C., public lavatory) is a public toilet facility — in contrast to a private usually residential toilet room, which may be a standalone water closet, or part of a bathroom. At a minimum, a public toilet can be a single unit featuring a toilet and hand basin for hand washing. Public toilets can also be larger facilities, which may include bathing facilities or showers, changing rooms and baby facilities.

A pit toilet or compost toilet is a method of collection of human waste, used for composting, controlled decomposition, or waste disposal used most often in areas with no sewer system. Pit toilets are used in rural and wilderness areas as well as in much of the developing world. Many variations exist, but at its simplest, the principle is that waste is controlled and decomposed into harmless by-products.

Types
A typical pit toilet

“Understanding the Urban Poor's Vulnerabilities in Sanitation and Water Supply ", is an article written by Barbara Evans published in July 1-6, 2007 by of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development. This paper argues that one of the root causes of this exclusion has been the long-standing inability of utility and city managers and their advisers to plan and implement water and sanitation systems which respond to the reality of the lives of the urban poor.

To draw lessons from the experience of RSMs and PCs operating in various states, and to formulate sustainable and replicable designs for the future, UNICEF commissioned “TARU Leading Rural Sanitary Marts and Production Centres – An Evaluation. This paper presents the results of an evaluation study of Rural Sanitary Marts (RSMs) and Production Centres (PCs) in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in 1999. UNICEF had supported the RSM and PC initiative in these states since 1991. The key issue that was analysed by the study was the ability of RSMs and PCs to promote affordable toilets in rural areas in a financially sustainable manner.

The safe disposal of human waste (sanitation) by building and maintaining toilets and washing hands prevents the spread of germs and is necessary for good health. This Chapter 7 “Building Toilets”, has been taken from the resource book - A Community Guide to Environmental Health, published in 2008 by the Hesperian Foundation, is a manual that looks at the various aspects of sanitation and toilet building, including understanding sanitation needs of different groups (men, women, children, disabled), planning for toilets for rural areas, cities/towns and emergencies and looks at the various toilet options available and methods to set up each one of them.
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