The consequences of backcountry surface disposal of human waste in an alpine, temperate forest and arid environment

Is open defaecation in outdoor recreation and camping areas a public health issue in Australia? A literature review

Issue addressed

In Australia, natural areas used for outdoor recreation activities or camping often have limited or no sanitation infrastructure. Recreationist and campers may use open defaecation practices where toilets are not provided. Contaminated soils and watercourses are associated with gastrointestinal illnesses. This review aims to determine if open defaecation is a public health issue in outdoor recreation and camping areas in Australia.

Method

A literature review was conducted using the following search engines: CINAHL, Informit Database, Scopus, ProQuest Science & Technology, Medline (Ovid) and EBSCOhost. Inclusion criteria for this review were both experimental and observational research designs for studies describing the public health issues associated with open defaecation practice.

Results

Out of 12 147 papers identified, only three studies met the inclusion criteria, showing a lack of research into this area. Included were two studies that addressed human waste management practices in outdoor environments and the breakdown of human waste in alpine regions of Tasmania. The third study measured water contamination at a freshwater beach on K'gari‐Fraser Island, Queensland. Visitors to natural areas are potentially at high risk of illness due to exposure to faecal contamination from other visitors using unsafe open defaecation practices in high‐use camping areas.

Conclusion

The limited number of studies addressing open defaecation in the outdoor recreation and camp areas in Australia indicates this review is a starting point to identify critical areas that may be of concern when managing visitors in an outdoor recreation setting. This review recommends investigating barriers and enablers motivating human disposal waste in these settings to help formulate health promotion content; environmental management policies related to sanitation and hygiene should be also underpinned by public health policy; and providing appropriate sanitation options depending on the ecological and visitor numbers to natural areas.

So what‐relevance of findings

Outdoor recreation activities offer physical and mental health benefits for communities. The popularity of outdoor recreation activities is on the increase in Australia. With the rise in visitation to natural areas, management of human waste needs to be addressed to reduce the public health risk of illness.

Waste management outlook for mountain regions: Sources and solutions

Following the release of the global waste management outlook in 2015, the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment), through its International Environmental Technology Centre, is elaborating a series of region-specific and thematic waste management outlooks that provide policy recommendations and solutions based on current practices in developing and developed countries. The Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions is the first report in this series. Mountain regions present unique challenges to waste management; while remoteness is often associated with costly and difficult transport of waste, the potential impact of waste pollutants is higher owing to the steep terrain and rivers transporting waste downstream. The Outlook shows that waste management in mountain regions is a cross-sectoral issue of global concern that deserves immediate attention. Noting that there is no 'one solution fits all', there is a need for a more landscape-type specific and regional research on waste management, the enhancement of policy and regulatory frameworks, and increased stakeholder engagement and awareness to achieve sustainable waste management in mountain areas. This short communication provides an overview of the key findings of the Outlook and highlights aspects that need further research. These are grouped per source of waste: Mountain communities, tourism, and mining. Issues such as waste crime, plastic pollution, and the linkages between exposure to natural disasters and waste are also presented.

Mountaineer’s Waste: Past, Present and Future

The growing number of mountaineers (climbers and trekkers) makes the problem of human waste amount to a considerable size (in tonnes of faeces and cubic metres of urine) of environmental degradation. Purity in the high mountains depends mainly on the mountaineers visiting them (the rule of ‘Leave No Trace’); however, if there is no assured suitable sanitation system, no mountaineer can be blamed for leaving human waste (faeces and urine), because the process of excretion cannot be stopped. The management can address the issue in three ways: complete (non–invasive), partial (superficial), and invasive. Those approaches have been elaborately explained in three case studies: Fuji–san (Japan), Yamunotri (India) and Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), respectively. Each of the places have been described based on the provided human waste disposal solutions, starting from the historical perspective and ending with the plans for future implementations, i.e. how it was, how it is, and how it will be. The results showed the improvement of understanding of the environmental pollution by human waste, at least from the management site. Decent changes have appeared in recent years–management bodies care more about human waste disposal. The authorities of mountain regions are gradually exchanging the old, leaking toilets for brand–new eco–friendly ones. Even if this process is slow–mostly because of economical limitations–management bodies appear to be noticing this threat. However, mountaineers do not always follow the implemented and recommended solution, as this study shows. The users should change their irresponsible behaviour, because even the best solutions in the case of human waste disposal in high–mountain conditions will fail if they do not follow the rules.