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.
Support for climate resilient water supply and sanitation service
WHO's primary SDG6 cross-cutting work is on guidance and implementation support for climate resilient water supply and sanitation services.
In addition, WHO engages in cross cutting work with health sector programmes to support global monitoring and progress towards SDG 3 on health. Key activities include monitoring of SDG3.9.2 on WASH-related disease and supporting implementation of the UN-Secretary General’s Call to Action of WASH in Health Facilities. In addition, WHO collaborates on WASH across the health sector for emergencies and cholera control, neglected tropical diseases (especially soil transmitted helminths and schistosomiasis control), antimicrobial resistance and polio containment.
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
