Advancing Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene

Residents fill up at a harvesting structure, which has made water readily available for drinking, agriculture and sanitation during the dry season.

Jal Bhagirathi Foundation

Sustainable development is not possible without water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Lack of access to safe water and sanitation services has direct health implications – almost 800,000 children under 5 die from diarrhea each year. And nearly 88 percent of diarrhea is attributed to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. WASH interventions are an important tool for creating and sustaining healthy, thriving societies.

USAID’s Water and Development Strategy makes Water for Health a strategic objective to improve health outcomes through the provision of sustainable WASH by:

• Increasing first time and improved access to sustainable water supply;
• Increasing first time and improved access to sustainable sanitation; and
• Increasing adoption of key hygiene behaviors.

USAID Water programs support enabling policies and frameworks, develop institutions, expand access to financially sustainable services and promote behavior change. Projects build the capacity of both small-scale service providers and larger utilities, improve household and community-level hygiene and sanitation, partner with a range of public and private organizations and engage with national governments for lasting change.

The Agency has been working hard to improve health through WASH:

• More than 3.8 million people were provided with improved access to drinking water supply and more than 1.9 million with improved access to sanitation facilities in FY 2011.
• Since 2005, USAID has partnered with The Coca-Cola Company to address community water needs in 24 developing countries around the world. In Senegal, this partnership focuses on improving water and sanitation infrastructure and services while also implementing hygiene education programs and promoting local governance of water and sanitation.
• USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to test and scale promising, cost-effective solutions in water, sanitation and hygiene through the WASH for Life partnership.
• USAID’s 5th Birthday Campaign is working with global leaders and partners to end child death from preventable diseases, such as diarrhea.