Our lifetime opportunity to provide everyone with water, sanitation and hygiene

As the historic United Nations Conference on Water begins today – the first in nearly 50 years – the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are calling on all nations to radically accelerate action to make water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) a reality. for everything.

The numbers are staggering – worldwide, 2 billion people do not have safe drinking water, and 3.6 billion people – almost half the world’s population – use sanitation services that leave human waste untreated.

Millions of children and families do not have adequate WASHING services, including hand soap. The consequences can often be fatal.

Every year, at least 1.4 million people – many of them children – die from preventable causes linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation. Right now, for example, cholera is spreading in countries where there has been no outbreak for decades.

Half of all healthcare facilities – where proper hygiene practices are especially critical – do not have soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

The social and economic consequences of inadequate water and sanitation services are also devastating. Without these crucial services, people get sick, children miss out on learning – especially girls – and entire communities can be displaced by water shortages.

At the same time, the benefits of access to safe water and sanitation, both for individuals and societies, are immeasurable. These services are crucial for the healthy development of children and the well-being of adults. They also offer a pathway to wider social and economic progress by supporting community health and productivity.

From solutions to actions

We all have the right to safe water, adequate sanitary conditions and hygiene, but many remain without them. Collectively, the world must at least quadruple current rates of progress to achieve universal access to safely managed WASH services by 2030. Progress must be even faster in sensitive contexts and the poorest countries, to protect people’s health and futures.

Fortunately, we have sustainable solutions and a historic opportunity to turn them into action.

We call on governments to take the following actions with the support of UN agencies, multilateral partners, the private sector and civil society organizations:

State leadership that will drive change:

• Develop a plan to increase political commitment to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, including outreach to leaders at all levels of government and participation in civil society groups;
• Develop a strategy to strengthen the governance and institutions needed to provide these services, such as establishing autonomous regulatory agencies that enforce health standards and regularly publish findings.

Resources and financing:

• Develop clear policy objectives to guide financing and funding decisions for WASH;
• Develop cost-effective financing and financing strategies that take into account the needs of different regions and population groups;
• Increase public spending on WASH to recognize its value as a public good; and
• Encourage providers to improve performance to satisfy customers and recover costs, for example by reducing service interruptions, water losses and improving tariff structures and collection efficiency.

Invest in people and institutions:

• Develop a plan to build a stronger, more diverse and gender-balanced workforce with better skills in the WASH sector;
• Build strong and competent institutions and a capable and motivated workforce; and
• Support the growth of professionalized service delivery, particularly in small and rural systems, by providing capacity development for underpaid and inadequately trained staff.

Data and evidence for decision-making:

• Support the institutionalization of data collection and monitoring within national systems;
• Use consistent methodologies for data collection and monitoring; and
• Transparently share and use collected information to inform your decision-making process.

Encourage WASH innovation and experimentation:

• Develop enabling government policies and regulations that encourage WASH innovation and experimentation; and
• Encouraging cooperation between the government, civil society groups and private sector stakeholders for the development and implementation of new solutions.

Investments and decisive action in the area of ​​water, sanitation and hygiene can be transformative. The key to unlocking universal access to WASH is right there – now we just have to grab it.