Water, Sanitation and Development

This AGUASAN publication illustrates how the water and nutrient cycles can be used as a tool for creating a common understanding of a water and sanitation system and aligning it with SDG 6.

This report is the result of a stakeholder consultation organised by the United Nations and partners to lay the groundwork for a new development agenda after 2015. The contributions are organised around three main topics: access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene; water resources and wastewater management; and water quality improvements.

There are still 780 million people without access to an improved drinking water source. And even though 1.8 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990, the world remains off track for the sanitation target. It is essential to accelerate progress in the remaining time before the MDG deadline, and I commend those who are participating in the Sustainable Sanitation: Five Year Drive to 2015. This report outlines the challenges that remain. Some regions, particularly sub- Saharan Africa, are lagging behind. Many rural dwellers and the poor often miss out on improvements to drinking water and sanitation. And the burden of poor water supply falls most heavily on girls and women. Reducing these disparities must be a priority.

The present study aimed to estimate global, regional and country-level costs and benefits of drinking-water supply and sanitation interventions to meet the MDG target in 2015, and to attain universal coverage. This report updates previous economic analyses conducted by the World Health Organization, using new WSS coverage rates, costs of services, income levels and health indicators.

This paper analyses how water management can contribute to reduce poverty and makes policy recommendations. Contains a detailed assessment of water’s potential contribution to all of the seven MDGs - not just that one which explicitly refers to water.

This report highlights the importance of the environment in achieving all MDGs. It focuses on three core aspects of goal fulfilment, namely freshwater to eradicate hunger and sustain ecosystems, energy and sanitation for poverty alleviation, health improvements and environmental sustainability.

This document annually informs about the progresses concerning the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) of the United Nations.

The report investigates access to and use of drinking water in greater detail than is possible in the regular JMP progress reports, and includes increased disaggregation of water service levels and analyses of trends across countries and regions. It focuses on the three key challenges of equity, safety and sustainability.

This factsheet shows the links between improved sanitation and health in a short overview.

This short factsheet informs about how sanitation is connected with questions of dignity, equality and safety, including questions of gender, disabilities, etc.

This factsheet shortly describes how sanitation can add to sustainability in an environmental way.

Compiled by the UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication (UNW-DPAC), this reader is intended for all those interested in getting familiar with issues related to the achievement of target 7c of the MDGs. It provides basic references for easy reading and some of the latest and most relevant United Nations publications on issues related to the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as they relate to water and sanitation. Link is provided when the publication is available online.

This well illustrated report describes the status and trends with respect to the use of safe drinking-water and basic sanitation, and progress made towards the MDG drinking-water and sanitation target. It presents some striking disparities: the gap between progress in providing access to drinking-water versus sanitation; the divide between urban and rural populations in terms of the services provided; differences in the way different regions are performing, bearing in mind that they started from different baselines; and disparities between different socioeconomic strata in society. Each JMP report assesses the situation and trends anew and so this JMP report supersedes previous reports (e.g. from 2004, 2006 and 2008).

This well illustrated report describes the status and trends with respect to the use of safe drinking-water and basic sanitation, and progress made towards the MDG drinking-water and sanitation target. It presents some striking disparities: the gap between progress in providing access to drinking-water versus sanitation; the divide between urban and rural populations in terms of the services provided; differences in the way different regions are performing, bearing in mind that they started from different baselines; and disparities between different socioeconomic strata in society. Each JMP report assesses the situation and trends anew and so this JMP report supersedes previous reports

Water, sanitation and hygiene interventions are frequently implemented to reduce infectious diseases, and may be linked to improved nutrition outcomes in children. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of interventions to improve water quality and supply, provide adequate sanitation and promote handwashing with soap, on the nutritional status of children under the age of 18 years and to identify current research gaps.

Physical height is an important economic variable reflecting health and human capital. Puzzlingly, however, differences in average height across developing countries are not well explained by differences in wealth. This paper provides the first documentation of a quantitatively important gradient between child height and sanitation that can statistically explain a large fraction of international height differences.

Focusing on sustainability in the realization the human rights to water and sanitation, the report examines how the rights to water and sanitation can and must be met for present and future generations. Using the human rights framework, the report analyses states’ common approaches to water and sanitation, particularly in adopting measures both during times of normalcy and during economic and financial crises, and shows how those approaches often fail to incorporate sustainability.

This is the synthesis report of the Human Resource Capacity Assessments. In the water and sanitation sector, the human resource requirement to meet the water and sanitation targets has been relatively unknown in relation to the numbers of staff, qualifications and their practical experience. IWA developed an assessment method to collect data on human resource gaps (skills) and shortages (number of workers) at the national level in the water and sanitation sector. The assessment method was piloted in five countries in 2009, Mali, Zambia, South Africa, Bangladesh and Timor L’este and in phase 2 a more structured approach was used for 10 in-country assessments (Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Mozambique PNG, Sri Lanka, Lao PDR and Philippines, Niger, Senegal, and Ghana).

Diarrhoeal diseases are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity, especially among young children in developing countries. While many of the infectious agents associated with diarrhoeal disease are potentially waterborne, the evidence for reducing diarrhoea in settings where it is endemic by improving the microbiological quality of drinking water has been equivocal. The aim of the present study is to assess the effectiveness of interventions to improve water quality for preventing diarrhoea.

This book takes stock of progress made by African countries through the AfricaSan process since 2008 and the progress needed to meet the MDG on sanitation by 2015 and beyond. It addresses priorities which have been identified by African countries as the key elements which need to be addressed in order to accelerate progress.This book is essential reading for government staff from Ministries responsible for sanitation, sector stakeholders working in NGOs, CSOs and agencies with a focus on sanitation and hygiene and water and Sanitation specialists. It is also suitable for Masters courses in water and sanitation and for researchers and the donor community.

This study was conducted to measure the impact of a hygiene intervention on the contamination of weaning food in Bangladesh.

Sustainability is without doubt one of the most burning subject matters that subsumes many of the issues that we are seeing in CLTS and wider WASH practice. There have been several useful studies on sustainability that have highlighted some of the different aspects as well as the complexities involved. However, it is unclear how much of the learning from these studies has been built into current and future programming and practice. Based on existing research and our own understanding, this issue of Frontiers of CLTS is an attempt at an up to date synthesis of where we are at the beginning of 2015. In the issue, we identify some priority areas for learning: How to phase in sanitation marketing; Post-ODF engagement of government, NGOS, donors and others; How to ensure equity and inclusion; How to transform social norms; Monitoring, learning, changing