WHO urges governments to take action with support from UN agencies, multilateral partners, the private sector and civil society organisations to reduce the WASH-attributable burden of disease,
Unsafe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) were responsible for 395,000 deaths among children under the age of five in 2019 according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report named Burden of Disease Attributable to unsafe drinking water, sanitation and Hygiene: 2019 Update.
Out of these, 273,000 deaths are attributed to diarrhoea, while 112,000 deaths are from acute respiratory infections. The report showed that half of the world’s population still does not have adequate access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene causing the death of at least 1.4 million people in 2019.
The report also mentioned that diarrhoeal diseases accounted for most of the attributable burden, with more than a million deaths and 55 million Disability-adjusted life years (DALY). One DALY represents the loss of the equivalent of one year of full health.
The WHO report assessed data from 183 member states for the year 2019. It pointed out that 771 million people lack access to safe water and 1.7 billion people don’t have a toilet, globally.
The WHO also noted other major diseases attributable to unsafe WASH — namely undernutrition and soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH). Soil-transmitted helminthiases are transmitted by eggs in human faeces, which in turn contaminate soil in areas where sanitation is poor.
STHs affect an estimated 1.5 billion people or 24 per cent of the world’s population. WASH also attributes to 10 per cent of the burden of undernutrition. There are significant disparities between regions and income groups.
Almost 384,000 diarrhoea deaths in every age group in 2019 were attributed to inadequate hand hygiene practices in Africa and South-East Asia.
Even high-income countries are at risk. 33,200 people died from diarrhoeal diseases and 317,921 from acute respiratory infections in the US in 2019.
But the WHO report also had some silver linings with many countries making rapid progress in improving access to WASH. In Jordan, there was an increase of 11 per cent in access to safe drinking-water services between 2015 and 2020 (From 75 per cent to 86 per cent).
In another five countries — Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Morocco and Myanmar — coverage increased by more than five per cent between 2015 and 2020.
To reduce the WASH-attributable burden of disease, WHO urges governments to take action with support from UN agencies, multilateral partners, the private sector and civil society organisations.
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