Water, sanitation and adequate hygiene

The Western Pacific Region has made considerable progress from 1990 to 2015 to improving access to safe drinking water, sanitation and adequate hygiene (WASH) services, with most countries achieving global targets for drinking-water and sanitation. However, nearly 90 million people in the Region do not use a basic drinking-water facility and more than 400 million do not use a basic sanitation facility. Gender along with other social determinants of health can help address concerns of availability and accessibility and the subsequent impacts on among women and men.

Water, sanitation and adequate hygiene

The Western Pacific Region has made considerable progress from 1990 to 2015 to improving access to safe drinking water, sanitation and adequate hygiene (WASH) services, with most countries achieving global targets for drinking-water and sanitation. However, nearly 90 million people in the Region do not use a basic drinking-water facility and more than 400 million do not use a basic sanitation facility. Gender along with other social determinants of health can help address concerns of availability and accessibility and the subsequent impacts on among women and men.

The Western Pacific Region has made considerable progress from 1990 to 2015 to improving access to safe drinking water, sanitation and adequate hygiene (WASH) services, with most countries achieving global targets for drinking-water and sanitation. However nearly 90 million people in the Region do not use a basic drinking-water facility and more than 400 million do not use a basic sanitation facility. More than 14 000 people die annually from diarrhea due to unsafe drinking-water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Higher mortality rates for both males and females are largely in low- and middle-income countries in the Region. Figure 12 illustrates the age-standardized mortality rate attributable to exposure to unsafe WASH services including higher rates of mortality among females compared to males in several countries (168). High arsenic levels in drinking water are also linked to increased risk of stroke and nearly double the risk of for IHD (37). Finally, access to WASH services and renewable freshwater resources may be negatively impacted for some populations due to rising sea levels, such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands (26).

Figure 12. Mortality rate attributable to exposure to unsafe WASH services (per 100,000 population), selected countries, Western Pacific Region, 2016 (168)

References

  1. Country profiles [web site]., 2014 (https://hiip.wpro.who.int/portal/CountryProfiles.aspx).
  1. Pruss-Oston A et al. Preventing disease through healthy environments: a global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2016.
  1. Burden of disease. SDG 3.9.2 – Mortality rate attributed to unsafe water, unsafe sanitation and lack of hygiene (exposure to unsafe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH)) [web site]., 2019 (http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.INADEQUATEWSH?lang=en, accessed 19 July 2019).
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