SAQs
Now that you have completed this study session, you can assess how well you have achieved its Learning Outcomes by answering these questions.
On a piece of paper, write down each of the key words printed in bold in this study session. Cut the paper into strips with one word on each strip; fold them and put them in a bowl. Take a strip, read the word and write a definition in your notebook. Then check your definitions with those in the study session.
This game is intended to familiarise you with the terms you will meet again in subsequent study sessions. To find the right answer, you can check the definition written in your own words with that in the study session.
Arrange the following phrases under the correct heading in the table below.
- aims to protect people from disease
- management of e-waste
- mainly concerned with solid waste
- options are described as a ladder
- management of industrial wastes
- aims to prevent pollution
- mainly concerned with liquid waste
- options described as a hierarchy
- management of human excreta.
| Sanitation | Waste management | Both sanitation and waste management |
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| Sanitation | Waste management | Both sanitation and waste management |
| Mainly concerned with liquid waste | Mainly concerned with solid waste | Aims to protect people from disease |
| Options are described as a ladder | Options described as a hierarchy | Aims to prevent pollution |
| Management of human excreta | Management of e-waste | Management of industrial wastes |
Rearrange the following into two separate lists, one in the correct order to form the sanitation ladder and the other in the correct order for the waste hierarchy. Put the best option at the top of your lists.
- pour flush toilet
- old cardboard box, flattened out, used as door mat
- defecating on waste ground
- broken wooden box used for firewood
- simple pit latrine with no ventilation or slab
- refilling a plastic bottle with cooking oil
The sequence for the sanitation ladder is:
- pour flush toilet (improved latrine)
- simple pit latrine with no ventilation or slab (unimproved latrine)
- defecating on waste ground (open defecation).
The sequence for the waste hierarchy is:
- refill plastic bottle with cooking oil (reuse)
- old cardboard box, flattened out, used as door mat (recycling)
- broken wooden box used for firewood (recovery – if the fire is used to keep warm or to cook food. If just burned without benefit then this is classed as disposal).
Name three ways in which urbanisation creates challenges for effective sanitation and solid waste management.
There are several possible answers to this question, but the main challenges from urbanisation are caused by many people living very close together which puts pressure on all urban services. The rate of increase in population is very fast and the development of infrastructure for water supply and sanitation services cannot maintain the same pace of change. People arriving in cities often live in informal settlements which are developed without planning or control and lack essential facilities for the people who live there.