Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Related Disease

Dear Colleagues,

A Topical Collection on “Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Related Disease”, in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, is being organized. For detailed information on the journal, please refer to http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph.

Appropriate access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is essential for good health. A considerable amount of disease could be prevented through access to safe water sources, adequate sanitation facilities and appropriate hygiene practices. More than half of the 1.5 million annual deaths attributed to diarrhea are attributable to inadequate WASH.  Poor WASH is one of the main underlying causes of under-nutrition, which contributes to 30% of deaths under the age of five. Deficient WASH is also associated with several neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, Guinea worm disease, and trachoma, which affect millions of people worldwide. Adequate WASH would also improve the quality of care in healthcare settings.

According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) in 2015, while 71% of the population use a safely managed drinking-water service, two billion still use a drinking-water source contaminated with feces.  Sixty-eight percent of the population used at least a basic sanitation facility, but 2.3 billion people were lacking access to sanitation and almost 900 million practiced open defecation. Data on handwashing facilities with soap and water was still limited, with coverage varying from 15% in SSA to 76% in Western Asia and Northern Africa.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognize the importance of safe drinking water, effective sanitation, and good hygiene (WASH) both by themselves and as necessity for achieving other SDGs related to health, nutrition, education and gender equality; with several of the 17 SDGs and 169 targets relating to WASH. Target 6.1 aims to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all; while 6.2 aims to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation. Other SDG goals and targets related to WASH, include SDG target 1.4 on universal access to basic services, SDG target 3.9 on the disease burden from inadequate WASH, and SDG target 4.a on basic WASH in schools.

This Special Issue is open to any investigation of WASH and health. It will cover a range of different topics, such as evidence on the impact of WASH on health/disease including NTDs, nutrition, diarrhea, environmental enteropathy; WASH in emergency settings, WASH in schools and WASH in healthcare facilities.

We look forward to your submissions, and putting together a stimulating Special Issue. We welcome reports of new findings, reviews of the literature, opinion papers and policy analysis.

Assoc. Prof. Susana Vaz Nery
Guest Editor

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