Safe and climate resilient sanitation systems are fundamental to protect public health. WHO supports capacity building and implementation through guidelines and tools on sanitation and health, safe use of wastewater and safe recreational water environments, using risk assessment to identify, prioritize, manage and monitor coordinated action to protect public health working in alignment with keys partners such as UNICEF.

WHO supports Member States in strengthening sanitation regulations through the International Network of Drinking-water and Sanitation Regulators (RegNet) to share and promote good practice in the regulation of sanitation services, for the protection of public health.

WHO leads global monitoring of sanitation-related burden of disease, use of safely managed sanitation services and wastewater treatment as well as factors that enable or hinder progress under the Sustainable Development Goals. WHO is spearheading efforts to utilize wastewater and environmental surveillance as part of collaborative disease surveillance and also coordinates action with health programmes where sanitation is fundamental for disease prevention and control such as neglected tropical diseases, cholera, nutrition and antimicrobial resistance. 

Take the WHO Academy Course to learn more about the state of sanitation, how it impacts health, how it is defined, and how to accelerate progress and national and local level or dig deeper with videos, training materials and additional resources at the sanitation safety planning (SSP) learning hub.

Read more about the practical steps to achieve universal access to safely managed sanitation, which support sector alignment on sanitation activities at country level.  And find out more about climate finance for sanitation in the new GCF annex for sanitation.