Smell : an overlooked factor in sanitation promotion

Bad smell from human waste carries so many social, moral, aesthetic, and disease-related concerns that it represents a major barrier to successful sanitation adaptation for people all over the world. This paper summarizes the author's experiences from sanitation research in low- and middle-income settings from several continents and research disciplines, and addresses the often-overlooked issue of reduction of smell for effective sanitation promotion. The paper argues that people therefore have developed strategies to avoid smell, some of these being of concern to public health specialists. It is recommended that smell and smellavoiding strategies are integrated into all phases of sanitation promotion programmes, from investigatory, to design, and maintenance planning. [authors abstract]