Welcome to the world of SFDs
Improving understanding of urban sanitation
Find guidance and support for creating SFD graphics and reports: the SFD Graphic Generator allows you to create your own SFD graphic for any given city.
Welcome to the world of SFDs
Find guidance and support for creating SFD graphics and reports: the SFD Graphic Generator allows you to create your own SFD graphic for any given city.
New SFD Reports
There are nine new SFDs (Chingola, Choma, Kabwe, Kafue, Kitwe, Mansa, Mahakali Municipality, Banepa Municipality, Jayaprithvi Municipality) accessible through our database now.
Check out the new drawings on the SFD graphic generator - when selecting sanitation systems, you can now see what each of the systems look like and double check that it matches the situation in your city.
A BIG thank you to the artist James McKay of the University of Leeds for producing the drawings – we think they are great!
Please take a look at the page and let us know what you think?
SFD Reports
Browse through all the entries and read more.
NEW SFD DATA PAGE
Check out the new page where you can compare SFD data from over 150 cities.
New Report available
SFD Promotion Initiative
Discover the brochure of CSE's SFD Phase III activities. CSE officially launched their SFD phase III in India in collaboration with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, in South Africa, and in Bangladesh.
SFD Thinking
Explore the new SFD Thinking and discover interesting facts, ideas and approaches on how to use SFDs.
SFD Manual
The SFD Manual was translated to Arabic and can be downloaded from the SuSanA Library!
An excreta flow diagram (also often described as shit flow diagram, SFD) is a tool to readily understand and communicate how excreta physically flows through a city or town.
The fate of excreta produced by populations across the globe is often poorly understood. SFDs show how it is or is not managed as it moves from defecation to disposal or end-use. The SFD report presents the service delivery context of the city or town and the data sources used for the assessment.
Discover the SFD reports, training events and presentations across the world.
As sanitation practitioners and city officials recognize how effective SFDs are in engaging and stimulating dialogue on excreta management to achieve better sanitation, the number of SFDs being prepared all over the world is increasing.
Do you want to prepare an SFD? Check out the tutorial videos, FAQs and the SFD Manual.
The SFD Manual describes the process followed within the SFD Promotion Initiative for the production of SFD graphics and reports. It includes guidance on data collection and analysis on how to use the SFD Graphic Generator and the definitions of terms and variables.
Discover the world of SFDs!
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From 2014 – 2018 the SFD Promotion Initiative has been managed by GIZ under the umbrella of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA), supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through two grants (2014-2015 and 2016-2018). Phase III of the SFD Promotion Initiative is being managed by the University of Leeds and the Center for Science and Environment, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through two additional grants. The secretariat of the SFD Webportal and Helpdesk are remaining with GIZ as part of the SuSanA secretariat.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE); the Global Sector Program on Sustainable Sanitation of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ GmbH); commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ); the Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (Sandec) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag); the water@leeds research group of the University of Leeds (UofL); the Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) of Loughborough University and the World Bank Water Global Practice
CC BY-SA 4.0
Saint Mary is a rural parish in the county of Middlesex on the Caribbean island of Jamaica.
As of 2019 the population is 115,090.
Onsite sanitation is used by 97% of the population, of which 94% use a toilet connected to a pit and 3% use a toilet connected to a septic tank. The remaining 2% are connected to a sewer network and 1% reportedly practise open defecation.
The SFD graphic shows that 98% of the excreta is safely managed and 2% is unsafely managed. Nearly all the safely managed excreta (94%) is from faecal sludge in pits of various types, which are not emptied but safely abandoned, covered and replaced when full. While this method is considered safe (assuming groundwater used for drinking is not polluted), it is only safe while there is space for households to cover old pits and replace with new ones. In areas where housing density is increasing, alternative safe solutions will need to be found that may include safe emptying, transport and treatment before reuse or disposal.