Water insecurity is a daily challenge for billions of people around the world. While many initiatives seek to improve access to water and its quality, a new study highlights the importance of a comprehensive approach to WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) projects.
The study, Measuring transformative WASH: A new paradigm for evaluating water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions, is a collaboration between Pulte Institute Associate Director Danice Brown Guzmán, Keough School of Global Affairs Assoc. Professor Ellis Adams, and University of Miami Assoc. Professor Justin Stoler.
Guaranteeing equitable access to safe water by 2030 is Goal 6 of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, individuals tasked with retrieving water (often women and children) may also face discrimination, threats to mental and physical wellbeing, and increased home absenteeism. Such metrics are often overlooked when considering the impact of WASH initiatives.
“For many women, the water crisis is personal. They are responsible for finding a resource their families need to survive — for drinking, cooking, sanitation, and hygiene. They may walk long distances on challenging terrain to collect water or pay large amounts of money to middlemen to secure water,” Guzmán said. “Water-quality data continues to drive the narrative of what safe water means without considering other elements like mental health, gender disparities, and injuries that can occur.”
When assessing the impact of WASH programs, the metrics used to evaluate the success of the program are usually so focused on water quality improvement, that the study’s authors think the true impact of the intervention is under-represented. “Such a blind spot can have major implications for measuring the success of larger goals like the SDGs and the design of future WASH programs,” Guzmán said.
Professor Stoler added: “By showcasing the wide-ranging impacts of WASH projects and their transformative relationships with other challenges related to food insecurity, health outcomes, and other issues, we hope to attract financing from global institutions to ramp up WASH projects and make global safe water a reality.”
Their project also generated a policy brief for Pulte’s Policy Brief Series and a comment in The Lancet Global Health. Watch Danice’s overview of their study here.
Originally published by at pulte.nd.edu on June 21, 2023.