Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services in both acute and protracted emergencies is critical for people’s health and wellbeing. The IFRC supports 1.8 million people every year with WASH activities during emergency response, helping them to stay healthy and maintain their dignity.

Our emergency WASH work includes:

• Rapid assessment and rehabilitation of damaged water systems
• Providing safe drinking water and constructing water treatment tanks
• Building toilets and hygiene facilities
• Distributing menstrual hygiene products
• Community engagement and hygiene promotion to prevent cholera, diarrhoea and other disease outbreaks

Responding to growing emergency WASH needs

We know that factors such as climate change are increasing the frequency, complexity and severity of disasters and epidemics. This, in turn, will inevitably lead to increased demand for, and complexity of providing, WASH services in emergencies.

The IFRC is well-placed to respond to this challenge. Our 192 National Societies working locally, supported by our unparalleled global network of expertise and resources, means we can get large-scale WASH resources to communities in need quickly.

We are also working hard to improve capacity and collaboration relating to WASH services within our Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and with external partners.

The IFRC has a permanent seat on the Global Wash Cluster Strategic Advisory Group and the WASH Interagency Working Group. We also regularly work with academics and other partners on WASH research and innovation so we can keep improving our work in both emergency and non-emergency settings.

The IFRC supports National Societies to deliver a range of long-term (typically three to five year) programmes that increase people’s access to, and improve, WASH services.

Crucially, we work in partnership with communities—fully engaging them in the design, implementation, operation and maintenance of WASH systems and facilities. This gives our projects the best chance of being sustained financially and technically long into the future.

Examples of our long-term WASH projects:

In Ghana, our innovative Ghana Sustainable WASH (Gha-WASH) project, in partnership with Nestle, has been running since 2015. Gha-WASH aims to make sustainable WASH services available to tens of thousands of people across the country and reduce WASH-related diseases. We’re using solar-powered water supply systems that dispense water using a cashless revenue collection system. Each water vending point measures the amount of water purchased and the amount of revenue collected, which can be monitored via a cloud-based system.

Since 2020, the IFRC has been working with the Zambian and Malawi Red Cross Societies to develop what we call Branch Rapid Response Teams in cholera hotspots. In line with cholera national plans in both countries, these teams provide ongoing training and pre-position oral rehydration points within communities so that oral rehydration therapy can be provided immediately when an outbreak occurs. During periods of no live outbreaks, these teams work with community volunteers to map WASH coverage and key gaps. They also carry out community chlorination of water supplies and promote good household water treatment and storage as a preventive measure to keep communities safe.

To help people live longer, healthier lives and to prevent disease, it is vital to consider WASH as part of a public health approach.

Together with our National Societies we are therefore integrating WASH activities more and more into our work in community health, emergency health and protection, gender and inclusion.

For instance, we are supporting National Societies to:

• Ramp up their hygiene promotion efforts in emergency and non-emergency settings
• Expand their work in menstrual health management
• Better align their work in WASH and nutrition

We are also developing a collective research and learning platform to inform public health WASH programming and operations across our global network.

If you are a WASH practitioner or are interested in this work, visit our Watsan Mission Assistant website for more information and resources.

Despite global progress in the quality of water and sanitation services, the reality is very different for the urban poor. Access to sanitation has declined in urban settings and slums as the number of people living in the world’s cities continues to rise.

Around the world, we are stepping up our work to improve access to affordable, sustainable and good quality water and sanitation services within urban communities.

This involves responding to community needs such as quality latrines and safe water pumps. But it also involves working closely with urban WASH service providers (public and private) and governments, helping them to increase their capacity to deliver sustainable services at scale.

Many National Societies also engage people living in urban areas in hygiene promotion and behaviour change campaigns that address specific urban WASH challenges. For instance:

• Tackling open defecation and open sewers
• Increasing demand for sanitation
• Helping people in overcrowded and polluted areas protect themselves from the increased risk of disease transmission

Learn more about our work supporting people living in urban areas on our urban resilience page.