Clean water, sanitation and hygiene

Global needs in 2024

Access to adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services is increasingly dire for forcibly displaced and stateless people, as well as the communities that host them, and at odds with UNHCR’s commitment to “leave no one behind”. For example, only 35% of forcibly displaced people in Ethiopia, 55% of those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 79% of those in the United Republic of Tanzania have access to “at least basic drinking water services”. Significant work is needed to reach this and other WASH targets.

As the causes and impacts of displacement increase in complexity and connectedness, meeting basic WASH needs is increasingly challenging. The speed, size and physical distribution of displacement, overlapping with the vulnerability of hosting populations and ongoing disasters, add challenges to UNHCR’s WASH responses, affecting the accessibility and acceptability of WASH services provided across the duration of displacement.

Climatic shocks and trends complicate WASH services since WASH infrastructure is vulnerable to damage from increasingly frequent climate events such as floods and landslides. These events also cause onward movements of forcibly displaced people, disrupting efforts to build up operational and maintenance expertise among the displaced population and to build self-sufficiency within the community.

Ensuring continuity in operating and maintaining WASH service provision is increasingly difficult given the protracted nature of displacements, often resulting in failing systems that are less able to meet the needs of the population. A majority of forcibly displaced and stateless people are hosted by low- and middle-income countries, whose governments face multiple challenges in providing WASH services. Transitioning to government-led systems requires long-term interventions in such settings.