biology

International Year of Sanitation

International Year of Sanitation is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand International Year of Sanitation rather than just read about it. In short: The year 2008 was declared the International Year of Sanitation by the United Nations in conjunction with the Water for Life Decade. The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation.

Key takeaways

International Year of Sanitation belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect International Year of Sanitation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of International Year of Sanitation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The year 2008 was declared the International Year of Sanitation by the United Nations in conjunction with the Water for Life Decade. The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. Worldwide there are roughly 2.6 billion people who do not have access to basic sanitation today. The goal of 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation was to help raise awareness of this crisis and to accelerate progress towards reaching the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) and cutting the number of people without access to basic sanitation in half by the year 2015.

Objectives The progress towards achieving the sanitation MDG has been slow and varied in different parts of the world. The main objective in declaring 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation is to help get the sanitation MDG back on track for achieving the goal of halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015. Accomplishing this goal will require cooperation between different UN agencies, especially UNDESA and UNICEF, as well as government agencies, NGO's, private companies, and academic circles. The year aimed to develop awareness and action to meet the Millennium Development Goals sanitation target. Particular concerns are:

Removing the stigma around sanitation, so that the importance of sanitation can be more easily and publicly discussed. Highlighting the poverty reduction, health and other benefits that flow from better hygiene, household sanitation arrangements and wastewater treatment.

Outcomes The network Sustainable Sanitation Alliance was formed in 2007 in order to have a joint label for the planned activities for the International Year of Sanitation in 2008 and to be able to align the organisations with each other for further potential initiatives.

History The spotlight on sanitation as a major issue worldwide began in 2000 with the United Nations adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, which aim at diminishing poverty and increasing health and the general well-being of all people. Further development of these goals was discussed in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, with the inclusion of access to sanitation as fundamental to achieving all goals surrounding bringing an end to poverty. The Johannesburg Plan of Action established the objective of halving the number of people without access to basic sanitation by the year 2015.

Illustrations

Modified logo of International Year of Sanitation, used in the UN Drive to 2015 campaign logo

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with International Year of Sanitation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what International Year of Sanitation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to International Year of Sanitation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about International Year of Sanitation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of International Year of Sanitation

In research: International Year of Sanitation appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses International Year of Sanitation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: International Year of Sanitation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2008 in international relations, Sanitation, United Nations General Assembly resolutions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for International Year of Sanitation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study International Year of Sanitation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what International Year of Sanitation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain International Year of Sanitation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is International Year of Sanitation in simple terms?

Why does International Year of Sanitation matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study International Year of Sanitation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on International Year of Sanitation.