July 2018 About Water, Sanitation and UNICEF The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Hygiene (WASH) works in more than 190 countries and territories to put children first. UNICEF WASH and Children has helped save more Globally, 2.3 billion people lack access to basic children’s lives than sanitation services and 844 million people lack any other humanitarian organization, by providing access to clean drinking water. The lack of health care and immuni­ these basic necessities isn’t just inconvenient zations, safe water and — it’s lethal. sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief Over 800 children die every day — about 1 and more. UNICEF USA supports UNICEF’s work every 2 minutes — from diarrhea due to unsafe through fundraising, drinking water, poor sanitation, or poor advocacy and education in hygiene. Suffering and death from diseases the United States. Together, like pneumonia, trachoma, scabies, skin we are working toward the and eye infections, cholera and dysentery day when no children die from preventable causes could be prevented by scaling up access and every child has a safe to adequate water supply and sanitation and healthy childhood. facilities and eliminating open defecation. For more information, visit unicefusa.org. Ensuring access to water and sanitation in UNICEF has helped schools can also help reduce the number of increase school children who miss out on their education — enrollment in Malawi through the provision especially girls. Scaling up access to WASH of safe drinking water. also supports efforts to protect vulnerable © UNICEF/UN040976/RICH children from violence, exploitation and abuse, since women and girls bear the heaviest Today, UNICEF has WASH programs in 113 burden in water collection, often undertaking countries to promote the survival, protection long, unsafe journeys to collect water. and development of children and encourage behavior change around WASH. UNICEF works UNICEF and WASH directly with governments, community-based Since 2014, more than 150 million people organizations and families to ensure access to benefited from improved water supplies as a clean and secure supplies of water and result of UNICEF’s direct support; two thirds convenient sanitary facilities. Improving of these individuals were in emergencies sanitation and hygiene in schools is essential to contexts. UNICEF programs that started with increasing school attendance and empowering an emphasis on water supply hardware, such children as agents of change in their homes and as drilling rigs and hand pumps, have evolved communities. As the lead emergency agency in toward a focus on sanitation and the “software” the WASH sector, UNICEF offers a core of supporting policy development, building the package of water, sanitation and hygiene capacity of institutions and raising awareness interventions in times of humanitarian about hygiene. emergency. 2017 UNICEF WASH Snapshot ● Reached 45 million people with improved In 2017, UNICEF: water supplies and 22 million with improved Over 800 sanitation, the highest numbers ever reached. children ● Invested over $1 billion to reach the most vulnerable children and families around the ● Distributed 3.5 million hygiene kits, including die every world with WASH. immediate response kits, family hygiene and day — about dignity kits and locally designed kits — more ● Carried out water, sanitation, and hygiene than double the number procured the year 1 every 2 programs in 113 countries with 650 experts. before. minutes — ● Continued to coordinate WASH ● Improved WASH facilities and services in from diarrhea humanitarian action as lead agency of the over 51,000 schools and 5,000 health WASH Cluster, in a total of 69 countries. centers, since 2014. ● due to unsafe drinking Community health water, poor workers have taught Amnata child health-related interventions, including sanitation, or hand washing and other good hygiene practices. poor hygiene. © UNICEF/UN065186/PHELPS.