Environmental sanitation and hygiene development

About 2.4 billion people globally live under highly unsanitary conditions and have such poor hygiene behaviours that their exposure to risks of incidence and spread of infectious diseases, are enormous. Water stored at home is frequently contaminated by inadequate water management in the home. These issues are receiving increasing attention, but considering the huge backlog within the sector there is still a need for greater mobilization of resources and involvement of decision-makers at all levels.

WHO has been at the forefront of environmental sanitation and hygiene action over the past years and developed some key materials intended for policy-makers and technical people dealing with these issues. These materials include guidelines, best practice documents and promotion materials.

• Call for partners: Adequacy of water, sanitation and hygiene in relation to home-based care strategies for people living with HIV/AIDS
• Sanitation and hygiene promotion: a programming guide
• Inheriting the world: the atlas of children's health and the environment
• Sanitation challenge: Turning commitment into reality
• Participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation: A new approach to working with communities
• PHAST step-by-step guide: A participatory approach for the control of diarrhoeal diseases
• Managing water in the home: accelerated health gains from improved water supply
• Preventing Trachoma: a guide for environmental sanitation and improved hygiene