The availability of safe drinking water, proper sanitation, and adequate hygiene is crucial for public health, particularly in less developed countries. The term WASH, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, creates a direct link between the prevention of diseases while improving life expectancy and dignity for individuals. This article will tackle how WASH serves as a direct health benefit to the population and what strategic interventions for sustainability are.
Introduction to WASH and Public Health
WASH, as it refers to water, sanitation and hygiene, forms an approach that integrates all of these aspects in pursuit of fulfilling primary human needs. And when combined together, these three would contribute greatly to producing a healthy society. Such WASH practices can help prevent the spread of communicable diseases, save more children, and even build better communities. This public health strategy is therefore of particular concern for low-resource settings and emergencies.
Importance of Safe Water for Public Health
Here are a few points to understand the importance of safe water for public health:
1. Access to Clean Drinking Water:
Accessing clean water is important for drinking, preparing food, and washing. Pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms may enter into unsafe drinking water sources that cause several diseases like cholera, typhoid, and dysentery. Hence, access to safe water boreholes, filtration systems, and organised sources for communities greatly reduces the burden of disease.
2. Prevention of waterborne diseases
Contaminated water is a serious source of suffering and death in several regions of the world because treatment generally includes chlorination as well as UV purification, along with boiling, as a break in transmission. In rural and disaster-stricken areas, public health policies often favour these interventions to prevent outbreaks.
3. Infrastructure for Water Supply
Proper water supply infrastructure and maintenance assure the constant availability of clean water. This includes piping, installing water tanks, and building community taps. Water infrastructure development also promotes economic productivity, as people would spend less time carrying water and more time on income-generating activities.
Sanitation as the Third Pillar of Disease Prevention1. Significance of proper sanitation facilities
Sanitation facilities such as latrines and toilets neutralise human waste to prevent environmental contamination. Open defecation is still commonplace in some regions, thus allowing the dissemination of disease through the soil, flies, and water. In the case of small households, access to private, safe latrines translates to a remarkable increase in health status.
2. Sewage and Solid Waste Management
Urban areas stand to benefit from planned sewer systems in the careful transfer of waste away from inhabited areas. Treatment plants can further isolate the public from exposure to pathogens. For the rural dwelling population, low-cost ecological sanitation options, such as composting toilets, are gaining popularity.
Hygiene Practices for Public Health Protection1. Handwashing with Soap
Handwashing is perhaps one of the simplest yet most effective ways of preventing infections. It decreases the transmission of respiratory diseases and diarrhoea, especially among children. Public health promotion for handwashing before eating and after using the toilet has been very successful in improving health outcomes.
2. Menstrual Hygiene Management
Menstrual hygiene is often neglected in public health discussions but is very important for women's and girls' health and dignity. Providing sanitary supplies, private washrooms, and hygiene education in schools ensures that girls can attend school regularly and safely manage their menstruation.
3. Awareness and Education for Hygiene
Hygiene education at the community level helps articulate the relationship between cleanliness and health. Training programmes, public posters, and school curricula can all promote good hygiene practices. Such interventions produce long-lasting effects on the reduction of preventable diseases.
Impact of WASH on Children’s Health
Three major impacts of WASH on children's health are:
Influence of WASH on Child Health
Reduction in Child Mortality: Poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water constitute two of the commonest child killers across the globe. Unsafe and polluted drinking water brings together poor sanitation, and nearly half a million children die every year from preventable diarrhoeal diseases with WASH interventions. Such measures further contribute to healthy survival in early childhood by increasing accessibility to WASH facilities.Increased School Attendance: School WASH facilities enable every child to be able to attend school regularly – girls in particular. Clean toilets, handwashing stations, and safe drinking water all reduce absenteeism due to illnesses or lack of menstruation hygiene facilities. Therefore, WASH in schools is integral in providing equal educational opportunities. The British Academy for Training and Development offers a specialised Water Paints Testing Methods training course to support professionals working in environmental and public health fields.Combating Malnutrition: Repeated episodes of diarrhoea and parasitic infections affect nutrient absorption in the child's body, leading to malnutrition. Thus, through reducing disease incidence, WASH interventions have a secret but powerful impact on improving child growth and development.WASH in Healthcare Facilities
When talking about hygiene, hospitals have high standards to combat infection dissemination. For patients' and staff's protection, WASH facilities should include clean and functional toilets with handwashing stations and sterile water supplies. Poor WASH facilities in hospitals have increased infection rates and adversely affected treatment outcomes.
Clean and sterile water should be used for all medical procedures involving patient treatment and the cleaning of equipment. Contaminated water is a predisposing factor to complications in patient handling and disease transmissions. Water quality surveillance in health centres and hospitals is non-negotiable for successful delivery of health care.
WASH itself is the backbone of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) in the health sector. Training of staff regarding hygiene practices, provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and routine cleaning considerations form a broad approach to the prevention of hospital-acquired infections.
Policies and International Frameworks Supporting WASH1. UN SDG 6
The objective of Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030. Targets include universal access, water quality, and integrated management. Governments align their national-level strategies under SDG 6 to attract funding and partnerships worldwide.
2. WHO and UNICEF Involvement
WHO and UNICEF carry out global WASH initiatives such as the schools and health care facilities programmes for WASH. They influence national policies through guidelines and technical support so that interventions can be standardised. They also are responsible for global monitoring data to track progress.
3. WASH Policies and Programmes Nationally
Several countries have adopted national WASH strategies that include budgeting, institutional frameworks, and rural–urban propensity for intervention. For WASH to be scaled up in solutions and integrated with a larger health and education policy, government commitment is indispensable.