Basic WASH services and medical waste management in health care facilities are essential for safe and quality care.

Further information: Diarrhea and Undernutrition in children A child receiving malnutrition treatment in Northern Kenya The anthropogenic effects on groundwater resources are mainly due to groundwater pumping and the indirect effects of irrigation and land use changes. [16] Building resilience against future diseases:Safely managed WASH services are needed tosupport affected, at-risk, and low-capacity countries to build resilience against futurepandemics,as well asagainst diseases that afflict the poor in the developing world on a more routine basis, such as diarrhea.In 2016, the WHO estimated that poor WASH practices were responsible for 829,000 deaths from diarrheal disease – equivalent to 1.9% of the global burden of disease. Cholera, an acute diarrheal disease linked to contaminated water that can kill within hours if left untreated, infects up to 4 million people each year, and kills an estimated 21,000-143,000 people. The spread of other diseases, like typhoid and measles, increase precipitously in the developing world when domestic water supply outages occur. In some individuals these diseases are fatal, and in many others their burden leads to reduced labor productivity and wages. Where the burden is high, repeated illnesses for family members can trap households in a vicious poverty cycle. India has made rapid progress in ending open defecation across the country, which significantly impacts improving water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Loss of productivity to water- and sanitation-related diseases costs many countries up to 5% of GDP. ( WHO, 2012)

Work with us

Awareness raising for the importance of WASH takes place through several United Nations international observance days, namely World Water Day, Menstrual Hygiene Day, World Toilet Day and Global Handwashing Day.

Barriers to providing WASH in health care facilities include: Incomplete standards, inadequate monitoring, disease-specific budgeting, disempowered workforce, poor WASH infrastructure. [74] :14Collaboration and convergence are a vital feature of the UNICEF Country Programme in India, where WASH is positioned as cross-cutting support contributing towards results in all aspects of a child’s survival, growth and development. The budget allocated by the State for prisons is often insufficient to cover the detainees' needs in terms of food and medical care, let alone upkeep of water and sanitation facilities. [77] :12 Nevertheless, even with limited funds, it is possible to maintain or renovate decaying infrastructure with the right planning approaches and suitable low-cost water supply and sanitation options.

WASH in HCF improvement programs have registered promising initial successes, but several sustainability challenges remain: UNICEF promotes community-based handwashing through a variety of media and through campaigns like Global Handwashing Day, which reaches hundreds of millions of people every year. Our people-based approach has helped entire communities eliminate the dangerous practice of open defecation, many of whom reached Open Defecation Free status in 2019. a b Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PDF) (Report). JMP, WHO and UNICEF. 2014. ISBN 978-92-4-151289-3 . Retrieved 22 March 2018.UN-Water carries out the Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) initiative. This work examines the "extent to which countries develop and implement national policies and plans for WASH, conduct regular monitoring, regulate and take corrective action as needed, and coordinate these parallel processes with sufficient financial resources and support from strong national institutions." [137] Scope 2 includes "indirect emissions associated with the energy required by the activity". Companies that deal with water and wastewater services need energy for various processes. They use the energy mix that is available in the country. The higher the proportion of fossil fuels in the energy mix is, the higher the GHG emissions under Scope 2 will be high too. [109] :12 The processes that need energy include: water abstraction (e.g. groundwater pumping), drinking water storage, water conveyance, water treatment, water distribution, treatment of wastewater, water end use (e.g. water heating), desalination and wastewater reuse. [109] :20–24 For example, electrical energy is needed for pumping of sewage and for mechanical aeration in activated sludge treatment plants. A tremendous achievement, only possible because of the Government’s flagship programme, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) (Clean India Campaign), led by the Prime Minister himself. UNICEF has been a proud partner of the Swachh Bharat Mission, which is now in phase two of its implementation.