Extreme weather events continue to hamper access to potable water, sanitation; urgent action needed: WHO 

The increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related extreme weather events continue to impact universal access to safe and sustainably managed water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said December 14, 2022.

Urgent action is required at global and local levels to ensure universal access to WASH in order to avert catastrophic effects of infectious diseases on health of millions of people, according to a new WHO assessment.

In many countries, progress must be accelerated to meet United Nations-mandated (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) six — ensuring universal access to water and sanitation by 2030, highlighted the analysis.

Also read: Rural water and sanitation needs to prioritise sustainability

Less than one-third of countries reported maintaining enough human resources to manage essential WASH tasks, noted the Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report.

The report, released by the WHO and UN-Water, provides the most up-to-date information on WASH systems in more than 120 countries, making it the biggest data collection ever.

“We are facing an urgent crisis: poor access to WASH claim millions of lives each year,” said Ghebreyesus in a press release.

“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,” the report highlighted.

The increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related extreme weather events continue to hamper the delivery of safe WASH services, Ghebreyesus said.

He added:

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.

While WASH budgets in some countries have increased, a significant portion — more than 75 per cent of them — reported having inadequate resources to carry out their WASH plans and objectives.

Most WASH policies and plans do not consider climate change threats to WASH services, nor do they take the climate resilience of WASH technology and management systems into account, the report added.

Also read: A ‘One Water’ approach is key to combat urban challenges, manage resources

Nearly two-thirds of countries have WASH strategies that target communities that are disproportionately impacted by climate change. However, only approximately a third track advancement or specifically finance these populations.

“The world is seriously off-track to achieve SDG six on water and sanitation for all by 2030,” said Gilbert F Houngbo, chair of UN-Water and director general of the International Labour Organization.

This leaves billions of people dangerously exposed to infectious diseases, especially in the aftermath of disasters, including climate change-related events, Houngbo said.

“The new data from GLAAS will inform the voluntary commitments the international community will make at the UN 2023 Water Conference, helping us target the most vulnerable communities and solve the global water and sanitation crisis,” Houngbo added.

The UN 2023 Water Conference, officially known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028), will take place in New York from March 22-24, 2023.