Water, sanitation and hygiene promotion

March 22 2013 World Water Day

Our activities

What we do

The world has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of peopl...

Water and sanitation policy

More than 1 billion people lack access to safe water and over 3 billion - half of the world’s ...

Our initiatives around the world

National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies work to strengthen local knowledge and capacities i...

Water and Sanitation ERUs and Kits

Since 1996, the IFRC has deployed 57 water and sanitation emergency response units around the ...

Hygiene promotion

Hygiene promotion is a fundamental part of the IFRC’s water and sanitation activities. It ...

Global Water and Sanitation Initiative

The IFRC Global Water and Sanitation Initiative (GWSI) outlines a common approach among National...

Why getting the balance right?

Lack of access to water and sanitation and poor hygiene is one of the principal causes of death and disease worldwide. It also leads to loss of productivity and forms a major barrier to development. 

Globally, 2.5 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation facilities and as a result, the lives of billions of people are adversely affected. Sanitation receives only 27 per cent of the total pool of global aid funding for water and sanitation. The Red Cross Red Crescent advocates the need for redressing the imbalance between action on
safe water and improved sanitation.

Image gallery from Zimbabwe

Opinion piece

Sanitation crisis: It’s time to talk about the solutions

Toilets are something that people are often embarrassed to talk about, making it easy to ignore ...

Related stories

The importance of hygiene and sanitation practices in healthy communities

Taking hygiene and health messages to remote villages in Solomon Islands.

Improving education through access to water in Vietnam

Taking a break for a drink of water is one way that many students like to escape the classroom. ...

It is not only one person that makes the difference, it is the entire community

It is early morning in Tornhill village, Mt Darwin district, and the water pump at the center ...

A volunteer with a bicycle can save lives

Tizai Miidzo is one of 108 Red Cross volunteers newly recruited to a water and sanitation project.

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