Access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation are vital for health, especially among children.

Poor sanitation, water and hygiene have many serious consequences:

• Children die from preventable illnesses like diarrhea;
• Children – and particularly girls – are denied their right to education because their schools lack private and decent sanitation facilities;
• Women are forced to spend large parts of their day fetching water;
• Poor farmers and wage earners are less productive due to illness;
• Health systems are overwhelmed and national economies suffer.

It’s impossible to break the vicious cycle of poverty – and enable sustainable development – without first addressing these issues.

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are essential for children and their families to live healthy, prosperous lives. WASH is at the core of child health and development and is vital for a child’s well-being. FHI focuses on bringing clean water, dignified sanitation and effective hygiene practices to communities, schools and healthcare facilities.

Clean and safe water supplies reduce the time needed to collect water. This allows children to attend school and parents, particularly mothers, to have more time to generate income for their families. Safe, private toilets and handwashing facilities with soap keep children and families free from disease.

WASH services at school mean that children can stay healthy and focused on learning. And healthcare facilities equipped with WASH services mean a higher quality of care for patients, including mothers and their newborn babies.

There is still work to be done. More than 700 children still die each day due to diarrhoea caused by unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene. The world has made a commitment to ensure that everyone has access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene by 2030. This goal is known as Sustainable Development Goal 6.

Our commitment is to ensure clean water, sanitation and hygiene for everyone, everywhere we work, by 2030.

UNICEF works in over 100 countries to help provide access to clean water and reliable sanitation, and to promote basic hygiene practices in rural and urban areas, including in emergency situations. We achieve better WASH results for children by:

Empowering communities

FHI promotes community-based handwashing through a variety of media and through campaigns like Global Handwashing Day, which reaches Thousands 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.

Supporting schools

We work directly with schools and health-care facilities to improve access to basic water, sanitation and handwashing facilities, and to establish protocols for preventing and controlling infections. We support menstrual health and hygiene in schools by constructing private, secure sanitation and washing facilities as well as menstrual pad disposal facilities. We also provide education and support services that help more girls better manage their menstruation cycle.

Humanitarian action

A significant amount of our work occurs in fragile and emergency settings to help prepare for and respond to humanitarian emergencies. This includes transporting water, ensuring it is purified, and constructing toilets in refugee camps and transit centres. We work to construct water and sanitation facilities that outlast the emergency, while providing clear leadership and accountability in humanitarian response.

Responding to COVID-19

In keeping with our Core Commitments for Children, FHI has mobilized teams and resources in a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We procure supplies for infection prevention and control, and work closely with local governments to provide guidance to communities, health-care providers and education practitioners.

Increasing focus on sustainability

We are committed to making all WASH programmes sustainable and adaptive to climate change by the end of 2021. In addition to supporting child-inclusive programmes, in 2019, FHI constructed and rehabilitated over 0 solar-powered water systems to address increasing water scarcity.  

Partnerships

We work in close collaboration with local governments, the private sector, academia, civil society organizations, and communities to improve systems and practices that fulfil a child’s right to water and sanitation.