Addressing climate change: Supplement to the WHO Water, Sanitation and Hygiene strategy 2018–2025


Book Description

This supplement to the WHO WASH strategy 2018-2025 further elaborates the direction and role of WHO’s work at the interface of WASH, climate change and health until 2030. It summarizes WHO’s interventions on WASH and climate resilience under the current strategy through authoritative guidelines, technical assistance, and evidence for policymaking. It describes how WHO will increase focus and impact on adaptation and mitigation measures that build health resilience through WASH in the face of a changing climate. The supplement identifies actions under seven focus areas. These include monitoring, climate resilience through WASH risk management, climate-resilient health care facilities, research, environmental surveillance and early warning, controlling the spread of vector-borne disease, health policy and implementation and WASH integration within Integrated Water Resources Management.




WHO global water, sanitation and hygiene


Book Description

This report summarizes the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global work on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) during 2022. It describes WHO’s continued delivery of essential WASH programming as elaborated in its 2018–2025 strategy. This includes publication and dissemination of its work monitoring access to WASH and WASH systems through the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) and the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS), continued development and implementation of its norms on drinking-water and sanitation, and overall advocacy including on hand hygiene. All of WHO’s WASH work was augmented through the strength of its partnerships.




Investing in Health and Wellbeing


Book Description

The proverbial benefits of prevention over cure are self-evidentDland yet we are reluctant to invest in protecting and improving our health. Resolution of this age-old dilemma begins with a timeless truth: the benefits of good health come at a cost; prevention is not better than cure at any price. Protecting health should be appealing when a high-risk, high-value hazard can be averted rapidly, with certainty, and at relatively low cost. Similar reasoning applies when the goal is to make health gains, not merely to avoid health losses. Health choices are rational, based on values that are personal. Investing in Health and Wellbeing: When Prevention Is Better than Cure, Second Edition provides a framework to promote and protect health as an asset, illustrating the principles with practical examples. Application of these ideas helps to explain why prevention is a low priority for health services, why the world was not ready for the COVID-19 pandemic, why deadly infections like tuberculosis are neglected, why cigarette smoking is still commonplace, why billions still do not have access to safe sanitation, and why the response to climate change has been so slow. Much more money and effort are invested in health promotion and disease prevention today than is commonly thought, but the enormous avoidable burden of illness is reason to look for ways of investing still more. Previously published as The Great Health Dilemma (ISBN: 9780198853824) in 2021, this second, updated edition makes prevention part of a broader vision for better health. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.




Water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity services in health care facilities


Book Description

WASH in health care facilities is essential for quality care – on this there is universal consensus. Many countries are taking action, but more collaborative, focused and expansive effort and investments are needed. This report focuses on global and national efforts and progress to improve water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH), cleaning and health care waste management in health care facilities. It builds upon the first update of progress published in 2020. In addition, in response to demands from countries and health actors on providing a consolidated package of information and interventions on climate-resilient and sustainable infrastructure services in health care facilities, data on electricity and examples of electrification are included. It includes a summary of country progress in implementing national actions (“practical steps”) articulated in the 2019 World Health Assembly Resolution on WASH in health care facilities, drawing on data from a “country tracker” and provides insights on successful approaches and challenges from country experiences in improving and sustaining WASH in health care facilities. The main audiences for the report are national health authorities; those engaged in WASH and infection prevention and control (IPC) in health care facilities, including ministries of health, water, infrastructure, energy and financing; global and national WASH and health partners, including donors and health funders; and actors working on climate-resilient and low-carbon health care facilities and health systems.




Guidelines for drinking-water quality: small water supplies


Book Description

Small drinking-water supplies commonly experience operational, managerial, technical and resourcing challenges that impact their ability to deliver safe and reliable services. The needs and opportunities associated with these supplies therefore warrant explicit consideration in policies and regulations. These Guidelines, specifically tailored to small water supplies, build on over 60 years of guidance by the World Health Organization (WHO) on drinking-water quality and safety. They focus on establishing drinking-water quality regulations and standards that are health based and context appropriate; on proactively managing risks through water safety planning and sanitary inspections; and on carrying out independent surveillance. The guidance is intended primarily for decision-makers at national and subnational levels with responsibility for developing regulatory frameworks and support programmes related to these activities. Other stakeholders involved in water service provision will also benefit from the guidance in this document. Designed to be practical and accessible, these Guidelines offer clear guidance that is rooted in the principle of progressive improvement. State-of-the-art recommendations and implementation guidance are provided, drawn from a comprehensive evidence review and established good practices. Additionally, case examples are provided from countries and areas around the world to demonstrate how the guidance in this publication has been implemented in practice in a wide variety of contexts. Together with WHO’s 2024 Sanitary inspection packages – a supporting tool for the Guidelines for drinking-water quality: small water supplies, these Guidelines update and supersede WHO’s 1997 Guidelines for drinking-water quality. Volume 3: surveillance and control of community supplies. Key changes to this updated publication include a greater focus on preventive risk management and a broader range of small water supplies covered, including those managed by households, communities and professional entities.




Universal water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity services in all health care facilities to achieve quality care


Book Description

The Global Framework for Action 2024–2030 for water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity services in all health care facilities (the “Framework”) serves to guide efforts to deliver safe and sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health care waste management and reliable electricity in all health care facilities. The ultimate aim is to provide quality care for all. The Framework reflects a global consultative process and includes data and recommendations articulated in recent WHO/UNICEF global reports on WASH, waste and electricity in health care facilities. It also provides an operational roadmap for implementing the 2023 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on WASH, waste and electricity in health care facilities. The target audiences for this Framework include health leaders and programme managers at the global and national levels; policymakers; WASH, waste and energy leaders and technical experts; development partners and finance institutions; and actors and experts on gender equality, disability and social inclusion and climate; and, more generally, civil society. The Framework deals with the WASH, waste and electricity elements of the WHO comprehensive approach to build safe, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health care facilities.




Water Matters


Book Description

Water Matters: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals presents a compilation of water scenarios and their relationship to multiple facets of life, as water forms a nexus with food security and energy resources, thereby forming one of the fundamental pillars of sustainable development. The thematic topics focus on studies of achieving individual sustainable development goals, primarily on safe and sustainable drinking water availability, the role of water in sanitation, transboundary water, and water in the ecosystem. Each chapter presents a case study to enable a holistic review of the topic and provide insight for further research. Water Matters: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals integrates the knowledge on global-scale water reviews to local-scale case-studies, ideal for hydrologists, hydrogeologists and water managers in environmental and Earth sciences. Provides interdisciplinary content that bridges the knowledge from water availability to sustainability through reviews of current technologies for clean water and water security Includes global and regional reviews and case studies, building a bridge between broad reviews of water related issues by domain experts as well as detailed case studies Identifies pathways for transforming water knowledge to achieve sustainable development goals to policy and governance of water, food, and energy security and sustainability




World health statistics 2023


Book Description

The World health statistics report is the World Health Organization's (WHO) latest annual compilation of health and health-related indicators for its 194 Member States. The 2023 edition consolidates data for 50+ health and health related indicators (SDGs and GPW13).




Revaluing multiple-use water services for food and water security


Book Description

Water is an indispensable resource that lies at the heart of sustenance and prosperity for communities worldwide. In low- and middle-income countries, households and communities have long relied on a single water source to fulfil a multitude of needs, encompassing drinking, washing, cooking, livestock raising, and irrigation. Traditional water supply systems have served as hydraulic structures for multiple purposes, catering to diverse water requirements. As countries progressed towards modernization, the emphasis shifted towards single-use water infrastructure, inadvertently neglecting the multifaceted nature of water demands that contribute to people's livelihoods. In developing countries, water resources management centered around large-scale irrigation and water development projects to spur economic growth. Infrastructure, institutions, policies, and practices were organized around single-use sectors. Consequently, prevailing models of water modernization unintentionally disregarded or even discouraged the acknowledgement of multiple uses.