By Asmau Ahmad
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations have said that urgent action is required to achieve safe and sustainably managed water, sanitation and hygiene in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to the findings, this is important to prevent devastating impacts on the health of millions of people.
This was contained in the WHO and UN-Water’s Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking Water which details the latest status of WASH systems in more than 120 countries.
The report said that while 45 per cent of countries are on track to achieve their nationally-defined drinking-water coverage targets, only 25 per cent of countries are on track to achieve their national sanitation targets.
Less than a third of countries reported having sufficient human resources required to carry out key drinking water, sanitation and hygiene functions, the report said.
It also noted that while there has been an increase in WASH budgets in some countries, a large number – over 75 per cent of countries reported insufficient funding to implement their WASH plans and strategies.
WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus said, “We are facing an urgent crisis: poor access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene claim millions of lives each year, while the increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related extreme weather events continue to hamper the delivery of safe WASH services.
“We call on governments and development partners to strengthen WASH systems and dramatically increase investment to extend access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation services to all by 2030, beginning with the most vulnerable.”
The GLAAS data also showed that “most WASH policies and plans do not address risks of climate change to WASH services, nor the climate resilience of WASH technologies and management systems.
“Just over two-thirds of countries have measures in WASH policies to reach populations disproportionately affected by climate change. However, only about one-third monitor progress or allocate explicit funding to these populations.
“The world is seriously off-track to achieve SDG 6 on water and sanitation for all, by 2030. This leaves billions of people dangerously exposed to infectious diseases, especially in the aftermath of disasters, including climate change-related events,” said Gilbert Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water, and Director General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
