The WASH Solution

The Water Crisis

WASH. A simple acronym that stands for sustainable change.

Reliable water is only part of the story in bringing lasting health changes to rural communities. Research suggests that to achieve the greatest health benefits, improvements in sanitation and hygiene should be made alongside access to water

These three disciplines—Water Access, Sanitation, and Hygiene—commonly referred to as “WASH,” can significantly decrease WASH-based diseases. These three components (water, sanitation, and hygiene) are interrelated, with each component often impacting the other.

Teaching sanitation and hygiene habits helps to ensure that communities can continue to make progress and maintain reliable water after organizations leave and programs end.

WASH stands for reliable water

According to 2022 data, 703 million people lack a basic level of safe drinking water, meaning they’re drinking water exposed to harmful pathogens or they’re walking far distances to access reliable water.

Clean water and health means families are stronger, with more saved income that they can spend on education, business investments, and making a way out of poverty.

WASH stands for improved sanitation

4.3% of the world’s population is still practicing open defecation.

Reliable water cannot be realized when human feces are in open fields, along roads, or anywhere where humans interact. Feces often contain dangerous pathogens that can make people sick, and children are especially susceptible.

This is why the sanitation component of WASH strategies, which are designed to separate people from feces, are imperative to community health.

Education is particularly impacted by quality restroom facilities. In Uganda, all Water For Good school sanitary facilities are accessible for persons with disabilities, and girls’ latrines are constructed to ensure an ideal facility for female menstrual hygiene requirements.

Communities with safe restrooms can thrive. For example, after we constructed restrooms and a well at Bulumba Primary School, the pupil population grew from 1,029 to 1,250 in just one month. Veronica, a pupil at Bulumba Primary, said, “I feel happy, loved, and special.”

WASH stands for proper hygiene practices

The hygiene portion of WASH programs focuses on implementing healthy habits in communities where they are not practiced, or where they are not commonly practiced. These changes in a family’s daily routine have saved lives all over the world.

These are simple practices that cost little to nothing, like washing hands, using a drying rack for dishes, and keeping the area around their home clean.

Without proper hygiene practices, families are exposed to waterborne pathogens that can make them sick—even if they have access to safe water.

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How we implement WASH practices

Water for Good’s approach to solving the water crisis is called Vision of a Healthy Village. It’s the culmination of more than 45 years of WASH experience and exhaustive research.

By training local leaders who are eager to reach their neighbors with healthy messages, communities take ownership of their own transformation. These health messages fall into five main categories.

Handwashing. Washing hands with soap stops the spread of disease. People build simple handwashing devices that save water and lives.
Drying rack. Washing dishes and drying them in the sun, away from animals, helps stop the spread of harmful pathogens.
Clean compound. Keeping the household environment clear of trash and feces discourages germs, keeps people safer, and helps them take more pride in their home.

Drinking and storing safe water. Safe water stored in dirty containers becomes unsafe water. Families learn to keep water safe from collection to consumption.
Using a latrine. Building and using a simple latrine separates people from poop, drastically decreasing waterborne diseases. It also provides safety and dignity.
Bathing shelters. These shelters ensure families have a private, safe space to clean themselves, empowering them to prevent WASH-related skin infections (such as schistosomiasis and trachoma) by regularly washing their bodies.

The Water Crisis

WASH and the Gospel

Water, sanitation, and hygiene practices all serve to help communities realize greater health and a more complete understanding of their God-given dignity and their own ability to thrive.

WASH habits build unity among neighbors in a community. When people aren’t walking for reliable water, they have more time to do the things they love, like spending time with family, attending school, and going to the local church.

The body of Christ is encouraged to love their neighbor by sharing and implementing health practices; in this way, the church becomes an agent of change for communities who are learning to be stewards of their own health.

Overall, WASH programs help communities develop a greater realization of their inherent worth, potential, and the plan that God intends for their lives. All of these messages are reinforced throughout WASH training, and the local church is integral to spreading the word.

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WASH leads to community solutions

Locally-based businesses are springing up to meet the needs of a healthy community, and they’re sustainable, powerful agents of change in solving the water crisis.

Meet Robert, a carpenter in rural Uganda. After Water For Good taught the community WASH practices, families needed doors for their “pit latrines.” This is an outhouse that uses little to no water, and to provide safety and dignity, it needs a door and a roof. Robert saw his opportunity, and now, he is busy making doors for the growing number of people who order them.

Eleven-year-old Gideon learned how to craft “tippy-taps,” and he makes these handwashing devices for his neighbors. He also builds drying racks for clean and sanitary dishware. He uses the profits to invest in his schoolbooks and fees.

Overcoming the water crisis means that everyone must be involved, from the grandmother enforcing healthy habits in the village, to the children who are eager to learn, to local churches, and to the donors who give generously to make it possible. When we are all walking in partnership with one another, long-term change is realized.

WASH stands for sustainable change

The ripple effects of reliable water cannot be over-emphasized. While reliable water is important, maintaining that water point and taking ownership of it for generations is how solving the water crisis becomes a reality.

When a village practices hygiene, sanitation, and water use consistently and intentionally, they own their own progress, a progress that touches every part of their lives and advances future generations.

Water for Good monitors villages for five years after program completion to ensure that WASH practices are still widely and frequently practiced. After providing safe, reliable water access, teaching sanitation and hygiene habits helps to ensure that communities can continue to make progress and sustain healthy outcomes after organizations leave and programs end.

WASH leads to community solutions

Locally-based businesses are springing up to meet the needs of a healthy community, and they’re sustainable, powerful agents of change in solving the water crisis.

Meet Robert, a carpenter in rural Uganda. After Water For Good taught the community WASH practices, families needed doors for their “pit latrines.” This is an outhouse that uses little to no water, and to provide safety and dignity, it needs a door and a roof. Robert saw his opportunity, and now, he is busy making doors for the growing number of people who order them.

Eleven-year-old Gideon learned how to craft “tippy-taps,” and he makes these handwashing devices for his neighbors. He also builds drying racks for clean and sanitary dishware. He uses the profits to invest in his schoolbooks and fees.

Overcoming the water crisis means that everyone must be involved, from the grandmother enforcing healthy habits in the village, to the children who are eager to learn, to local churches, and to the donors who give generously to make it possible. When we are all walking in partnership with one another, long-term change is realized.

WASH stands for sustainable change

The ripple effects of reliable water cannot be over-emphasized. While reliable water is important, maintaining that water point and taking ownership of it for generations is how solving the water crisis becomes a reality.

When a village practices hygiene, sanitation, and water use consistently and intentionally, they own their own progress, a progress that touches every part of their lives and advances future generations.

Water For Good monitors villages at the household level for five years after program completion to ensure that WASH practices are still widely and frequently practiced. Part of this process included identifying the social structures already at work in a community—like local elders and other neighborhood leadership groups—who will continue to enforce healthy habits for generations to come.

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