World Health Organisation (WHO)
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the UN specialized agency on health. WHO monitors global progress on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) through estimates of global burden of WASH- related disease, monitoring of progress under the SDGs on WASH in households, schools and health facilities, wastewater treatment and the enabling environment for WASH service delivery.
WHO supports progress on WASH though development of rigorous evidence-based global guidelines on drinking-water quality, sanitation and health, safe use of wastewater in agriculture and aquiculture, and safe recreational water environments and supports capacity development for guideline implementation at country level through 6 regional offices and 147 country offices. WHO also works with the health sector to ensure that WASH is coordinated and incorporated in health programme delivery wherever WASH plays a role in primary prevention or health service delivery with a focus on; WASH in health facilities, emergencies and cholera control, neglected tropical diseases, antimicrobial resistance and health impacts of climate change. Further details is available in the WHO Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy 2018-25.
Monitor safe treatment of wastewater
WHO monitors safe treatment of wastewater through the Integrated Monitoring Initiative and the enabling environment for improvements in wastewater treatment and safe use through the UN-Water global analysis and assessment of sanitation and drinking-water (GLAAS). WHO also supports global progress towards improvements in treatment and safe use through the WHO Guidelines on Safe Use of Wastewater in Agriculture and Aquaculture and Guidelines on Safe Recreational Water Environments and promotion and capacity building on sanitation safety planning business models for safe resource recovery and reuse.
WHO also interfaces with health programmes where wastewater and ambient water quality plays a key role on primary prevention especially antimicrobial resistance and food safety.
Co-hosted by the International Water Association (IWA) and World Health Organization (WHO), the Water Safety Conference 2022 will be held on 22-24 June 2022 in Narvik, Norway, following the conference of 2016 in Palawan, Philippines. The Conference will bring together leading international experts f … Read more
Hand hygiene and infection prevention and control (IPC) in health facilities helps protect the health and safety of patients and health workers. Led by the World Health Organization (WHO), World Hand Hygiene Day, 5 May 2022, is focused on recognizing that a facility’s climate or culture of safety an … Read more
The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF will run a webinar called “Is your facility WASH FIT 2022?” at 1pm CEST, on 26 April 2022. Participants will hear about the new and updated ‘WASH FIT’ package, country examples of improvements when using WASH FIT, and plans for future implementation. WA … Read more
On 2-3 March, the UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6 (IMI-SDG6) Steering Committee met to review the 2021 results and plan for the 2022 work. 2021 results In 2021, IMI-SDG6 focused its work on communicating the current status of SDG 6 and acceleration needs to achieve SDG 6 by 2030, … Read more
From the 29-31 March 2022 is the three-day opening workshop of the World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA) workshop series on water quality monitoring. The proposed series of workshops aims at addressing the broad spectrum of water quality monitoring, including modelling, earth observation, citizen scie … Read more