For rural areas, onsite sanitation is generally accepted as an adequate and healthy solution to manage human waste. However, for (peri-) urban areas, onsite sanitation is often seen as an inferior technology, something for the poor and a temporary solution for other income groups. A technology that is simple and easy and the lowest step on the 'sanitation ladder'.... ultimately the goal is to have a sewerage connection: the top of the sanitation ladder. The illustrations above show that sewerage is an extremely expensive affair and complicated to implement, operate and maintain. The colonial photo of Yogyakarta shows a unique flushing system: surface water was used to flush the sewers in Yogya.

Sjaak van der Geest has collected a large number of interesting views on sanitation, see his tasty tales. Many organisations have produced documents to stress the importance of sanitation such as 'The last taboo' and 'One fly is deadlier than a thousand tigers'.