Promoting Sanitation Worker Health and Safety through Social Enterprise

Recorded on October 5, 2021

With the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH), NorCal ERC

Webinar Navigation

Promoting Sanitation Worker Health and Safety through Social Enterprise

About the Webinar:

Worldwide, 2.7 billion people rely on onsite sanitation systems that are not connected to sewer systems. These facilities are cleaned and maintained by informal and invisible sanitation workers at a great risk to their health and dignity. This webinar will focus on how social enterprise may be an important mechanism for integrating sanitation workers in the formal economy and safeguarding their dignity and health. Case studies from East Africa and Southeast Asia will be discussed.

Learning Objectives

  1. Identify health effects to sanitation workers servicing onsite sanitation facilities
  2. Describe benefits and strategies for including sanitation work within the formal economy
  3. Discuss case studies where sanitation work is being formalized internationally

Instructor: Rachel Sklar, PhD

Dr. Rachel Sklar is a researcher and social entrepreneur with experience working on sanitation and environmental health in over 7 countries. Her research focuses on quantifying health risks to sanitation workers and bringing light to the invisibility of their plight. Rachel founded Pit Vidura, a social enterprise which equips informal sanitation workers in Rwanda with the tools and training necessary to formalize their services and provide basic sanitation for informal settlements and refugee camps.

Center for Occupational and Environmental Health Continuing Education