The water, sanitation, and hygiene, or WASH, sector, just like many others, has changed over the years and today grapples with new and emerging challenges alongside existing ones. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 3 people still lack access to safe drinking water with around 2 billion using a water source contaminated with feces.
In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the deficits in water and sanitation facilities and gaps in hygiene practices; climate change threatens to roll back gains made in terms of access to clean water, and new conflicts amid a cost of living crisis are putting strains on already weak WASH budgets. Against this backdrop, what’s required of those working in this space is shifting.
Historically, WASH sector professionals have been good “at adapting, upgrading, and changing their skill sets to adapt to different issues,” said Tommy Ngai, head of WASH at WaterAid UK. For example, in the early 2000s, there was a realization that sanitation was lagging behind. “Many of my colleagues who used to be WASH engineers started to learn about sanitation and do work in that space,” he said.