WHO calls for urgent global action to ensure safe drinking water and toilets for all

Urgent action is needed to ensure safe drinking water and toilets are available to everyone by 2030, according to a new report from the UN and World Health Organisation (WHO).

This aspiration is one of the Sustainable Development Goals, and is one of the targets set out in SA’s National Development Plan.

Lack of access to water and sanitation means billions of people are exposed to infectious diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera, particularly in the aftermath of natural disasters and extreme weather events driven by climate change, warned the WHO.

While SA is far from the worst performer among the 121 countries surveyed in the report, it nevertheless needs to step up efforts to meet its targets for safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, finds the report.

It shows SA is “almost on track” to meet its drinking water and sanitation goals. For example, while SA extended access to safe drinking water from a little more than 60% of the population in 2010 to 88% in 2020, and still needs to extend coverage by an average of 1.2 percentage points a year to ensure universal access by 2030, according to the report.

It noted that while SA’s WASH budget increased by slightly more than 1% in nominal terms between 2019 and 2021 to R40.5bn, this increase did not keep pace with inflation and so represented a cut in real terms.

Globally, 45% of countries are on track to meet their own targets for safe drinking water, but only 25% are on track to reach their sanitation goals. The coronavirus pandemic highlighted that about 2.3-billion people lacked the means to safely wash their hands, and while many countries had stepped in with emergency hand hygiene measures, these were not necessarily being sustained, said Bruce Gordon, WHO head of water, sanitation, hygiene and health.

Almost 2-million people die each year due to poorly managed water, sanitation and hygiene, he said. Even within the health sector, with its heightened awareness of how infectious diseases were transmitted, there was inadequate funding and infrastructure for hand hygiene, he said.

“We know that 50% of healthcare facilities around the world are lacking hand hygiene at point of care or at a toilet,” he said. “The opportunity is there to ensure we have the necessary infrastructure so healthcare professionals can do their job, that workers have a dignified place to work, and that patients are protected. It’s not rocket science,” he said.

The report highlighted that few countries had addressed the risks of climate change in their water and sanitation policies.

“We are facing an urgent crisis: poor access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene claims millions of lives each year, while the increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related extreme weather events continue to hamper the delivery of safe water, sanitation and hygiene services,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

kahnt@businesslive.co.za