In the hierarchy of global development priorities, water, sanitation, and hygiene — known collectively as WASH — rarely make headlines. Yet the sector underpins nearly every other goal: children can’t attend school without safe water, hospitals can’t function without clean water, and communities can’t withstand climate shocks without resilient sanitation systems. Despite this, WASH remains one of the most chronically underfunded areas in international aid.
The statistics around WASH are staggering. Globally, an estimated 2.1 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water — that’s equivalent to 1 in 4 people worldwide. In addition, 3.4 billion live without safe sanitation, according to the latest joint World Health Organization and UNICEF data. The consequences are fatal — and frequent. In April, five Sudanese children died after contracting cholera from an unsafe water source — scientists discovered that cholera was waterborne in 1854, and it was promptly addressed in higher-income countries.
“I do get quite annoyed about this because the need for water, sanitation and hygiene … was understood so long ago,” Tim Wainwright, the CEO of the nonprofit organization WaterAid, told Devex.
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
