Meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goal for Sanitation and Hygiene in the Era of COVID-19
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Date
2020
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The Journal of Record,
Abstract
We are a decade away from 2030 and well off-track to achieve the sanitation and hygiene-related targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2, which is as follows: By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.1
These targets must be pursued for the good of all, but particularly and urgently to prepare nations to better respond to outbreaks or pandemics of infectious disease.
To this goal, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) of the United Nations Office for Project Services announced2 its steering committee's landmark decision on May 4, to approve a new strategy for 2021–2025 and over the course of this year, to evolve the organization into the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund.
A strong focus on those left behind and least able to respond will be at the heart of the fund, and through its new strategy, it will pursue four main strategic priorities: 1.) scale up household sanitation and hygiene services; 2.) address menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) gaps, promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; 3.) increase sustainable water, sanitation, hygiene, and MHH services in schools and health care facilities; and 4.) support all forms of innovation which work toward providing access to safely managed services for all.
The fund will provide grants to low-income countries for community-based solutions for sanitation and hygiene. This catalytic funding—primarily for countries in Africa and Asia—will be in addition to domestic financing and will leverage SDG interlinkages through a partnership approach.
In response to the news, Jane Ruth Aceng, Minister of Health for Uganda, who has been a partner of WSSCC since 2010, issued the following statement:
The current COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the role of sanitation and hygiene in the prevention of disease. Currently, more than half of the world's population does not have access to safely managed sanitation and three billion lack basic hygiene services. Across the world, including Uganda, people still live with inadequate sanitation and hygiene services in their houses, in their schools, and even in their health care facilities. Globally, open defecation is still practiced by 673 million people, predominantly those of disadvantaged rural communities. The poorest, least developed countries of the world are particularly affected. This is one of the biggest and longest-standing weaknesses in global health, and it has tragic consequences.
In my country, Uganda, an estimated 75 percent of the overall disease burden derives from inadequate sanitation and hygiene. Each year, 23,000 Ugandans die from diarrhea, of which 19,700 are children below the age of five. Some 90 percent of these deaths are directly attributable to inadequate water, poor sanitation, and unhygienic practices. In other words, they would be entirely preventable through basic water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions.
With estimates indicating that only 12 percent of health-care facilities in Uganda have basic sanitation services, the need to provide water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services is acute, especially in maternity and primary-care environments.
In schools, the lack of proper WASH facilities leads to absenteeism and dropouts of adolescent girls. Of concern is the absence of means for girls to manage menstruation, which deters them from attending classes. Similarly, inadequate sanitation and hygiene facilities in the workplace mean that women are unable to manage menstruation, risking work absenteeism and depriving society of their full participation.
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Aceng, J. R. (2020). Meeting the un sustainable development goal for sanitation and hygiene in the era of COVID-19. Sustainability: The Journal of Record, 13(3), 104-106. https://doi.org/10.1089/sus.2020.29186.jra