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Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Toolkit Intro Why Key Asks Other Sectors

Intro

Improving access to clean water and sanitation is a key enabler to support improved nutrition results : it is essential to safeguarding nutrient absorption, and thus contributes to improved nutrition outcomes. This is particularly critical in the first 1,000 days when a child is most vulnerable to adverse effects of undernutrition.

Taking nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive actions will benefit the WASH sector – for example, through the adoption of good practices at home and in school.

However, access to WASH remains inadequate in almost every SUN country and continues to pose a barrier to ending malnutrition by 2030. As people who lack access to water, sanitation and hygiene often suffer from food and nutrition insecurity there are important opportunities to collaborate in service delivery between both sectors.

Why

Why the sector needs to get involved

  • Prioritizing actions to support improvements in the WASH sector will contribute to improving nutrition outcomes, and improved nutrition outcomes will contribute to sustainable development, including better WASH indicators in the country.
  • WASH interventions could piggy back on nutrition activities already integrated to immunization-nutrition packages through advanced strategies.
  • Parasitic infections, such as soil-transmitted helminths (worms), caused by a lack of sanitation and hygiene, infect around two billion people globally, while an estimated four and a half billion people are at risk of infection (WaterAid). Such infections can lead to anemia, reduced physical development and inhibited cognitive development.
  • Diarrhea (largely caused by poor WASH) is a leading cause of death in children under-five globally and its constant presence in low-income settings may contribute significantly to malnutrition.
  • The integration of immunization and nutrition efforts through advanced strategies offer a significant opportunity to integrate WASH interventions as well, ensuring that the most vulnerable populations are reached.

Key asks

  • Foster networking and collaboration between the WASH and nutrition sectors: exchange on the latest research, policies and events relevant to WASH and Nutrition, craft common messages and organize joint behavior-change activities at community level to reduce exposure to pathogens in order to improve nutrition.
  • Ensure that WASH information, education and communication messages disseminated at community level include a nutrition component, to highlight the interlinkages with the objective of promoting good practices and changing social norms to prevent the ingestion of fecal pathogens.
  • Invest in the technology and infrastructure needed to improve sanitation and waste management: according to the World Health Organization (WHO), roughly 50% of all malnutrition is associated with repeated diarrhea or intestinal worm infections as a direct result of inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.
  • Improve access to clean water, handwashing and latrine/toilet facilities in households, schools, health care facilities and public spaces and at the same time work with nutrition practitioners to include nutrition messages in school-based behavior-change communication campaigns.
  • Promote joint routine multi sectoral information systems to keep analyzing multi causality factors and advocate for adequate joint solutions.