Technical Guidance Note on Urban WASH

Background (the challenge)

WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) is crucial to human dignity, it is a vital element of preventive and public health and can contribute significantly to poverty reduction.

Lack of access to water and sanitation combined with poor hygiene are among the principal causes of preventable death and disease globally. It also leads to loss of productivity and forms a major barrier to development efforts and sustainable growth. Traditionally, WASH in development has focused on the need of communities in rural settings, but with 54% of the population living in urban areas, there is a need to expand the focus.

Although great strides were made globally within the framework of the MDGs, many countries fell short of targets and significant gaps exist both thematically and geographically. Enabling environments for increased sustainable and equitable WASH access gains are still a challenge across the globe, but especially in fragile states where underlying poverty and lack of investment and implementation capacities are weak, and where policy and legislative frameworks are not in place or applied. The new SDG 6 (focusing on WASH specifically) and other related SDGs will all rely in some part on WASH gains, and increasingly on WASH gains in the urban context.