Contents
1. Promoting Community Environmental Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Health promoters stop cholera . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Working together for change . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What made health organizing successful? . . . . 4
How the vision of health began to grow . . . . . . 5
Finding the root cause of the problem . . . . . . . 7
Working for environmental health . . . . . . . . . 8
2. Understanding and Mobilizing for Community Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Mobilizing for environmental health . . . . . . 12 Women need a voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Change takes time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A guide to which activity to use when . . . . . . 19
Activities for learning and mobilizing . . . . . 14
3. Protecting Natural Resources for All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Inequality: cause and effect of
How we can copy natural cycles . . . . . . . . . 31
environmental health problems . . . . . . . . 22 How industry can copy natural cycles . . . . . 31
Corporate control is bad for our health . . . . . 24 Harm from pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Building community institutions . . . . . . . . . 25 The precautionary principle . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Making our communities sustainable . . . . . . 26 Climate change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Respecting the web of life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4. Environmental Rights and Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The Bhopal toxic gas disaster . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Working for change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
How toxic substances get into our bodies . . . 40 Demanding precaution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
A clinic designed for the environment . . . . . . 40
5. Health Problems from Unsafe Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Enough water and safe water . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Guinea worm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Women’s burden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Blood flukes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
How germs and worms spread disease . . . . . 49 Toxic pollution in water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Diarrhea diseases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 The right to enough safe water . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Diarrhea and dehydration . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Bottling and selling the right to water . . . . . 63
6. Protecting Community Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Water and community health . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Protect your spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Improving your water supply . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Collect rainwater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Women are important in planning . . . . . . . 72 Safe water transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Barriers to improving your water supply . . . . 73 Safe water storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Protect water sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Making water safe to drink . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Protected wells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Filtering water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Maintain your well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Disinfecting water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
How to choose a pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Wastewater as a resource . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7. Building Toilets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Promoting sanitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Toilet choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Planning for toilets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Ecological toilets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Making toilets easier to use . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Compost toilets and dry toilets . . . . . . . . . 125
Sanitation for emergencies . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Building dry toilets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Sanitation for cities and towns . . . . . . . . . 114 Urine fertilizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
The problem of sewage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Pour flush pit toilets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012