Overview
Safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) remained fundamental to health, disease prevention,
resilience and equity in 2025, but the global context for action became more difficult. Despite
progress since 2015, the world remains dangerously off track to achieve Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) 6. Billions of people still lack safely managed drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene
services, and more than 1 billion people receive care in health care facilities without even basic water
services. The consequences remain severe: inadequate WASH contributes to an estimated 1.4 million
deaths each year, while cholera, conflict and climate shocks continue to expose the fragility of
essential services.
In this context, WHO’s role is distinctive. The Organization does not build infrastructure directly. Instead, it translates health risk science into norms, tools, data and partnerships that help make WASH safe at scale.
The work highlighted in this report demonstrates both the scale of the unfinished agenda and the
continuing value of WHO’s contribution. In a year marked by tighter funding, rising climate and conflictrelated pressures, and growing demand for stronger systems, WHO continued to deliver high-leverage
global public goods through a lean model focused on norms, monitoring, regulation and partnerships.
The transition to the 2026–2035 strategy therefore marks not a change in mandate, but a sharper focus
on what is now most needed: ensuring that WASH services are not only expanded, but made safe,
equitable, resilient and sustainable.
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