A Review of Sanitation Technologies for Flood-Prone Areas

June 2020

Despite the formal acknowledgment of sanitation as a fundamental human right, more than 600 million people still practice open defecation, most of them in poor countries. A part of this challenge is related to the type of natural environment such as floodable areas where flooding affects thousands of people every year and has a direct impact on their access to sanitation.

Although there is a wide range of technological sanitation options for vulnerable communities, few publications explore their applicability to areas prone to constant natural floods, thereby hampering the possibilities for improving sanitation conditions in such areas. This review aims at compiling and consolidating current information on sanitation options for floodable areas with a focus on their technological, environmental, and managerial peculiarities.

A systematic review identified 28 relevant publications presenting sanitation solutions for those environments. They were grouped into dry solutions and wet solutions. This analysis showed that there is no single universal technology capable of solving the problem but instead, a set of different technological arrangements that could be implemented bearing in mind the environmental and social contexts in which they are inserted.

Additional details

PublisherJournal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development
ThemesChallenging contexts, Climate change, Leave no one behind, Sustainability and safely managed sanitation, Tough physical environments, Vulnerability, resilience and adaptation
LanguageEnglish

Share this resource

Learn more about SLH Research

We use a range of research approaches, which aim to draw attention to urgent knowledge gaps, blind spots and emerging questions, often at a critical point in time, to support policy-makers, practitioners and partners in navigating and responding swiftly.

SLH Research and Learning