UNICEF Water and Sanitation Program Overview

For over forty years, UNICEF has been working in the area of water and sanitation. UNICEF's water and sanitation programs are active in over 90 countries, providing sources of clean water, adequate sanitation facilities and hygiene programs, and prioritizing service delivery to the poorest children.

Working at all levels—family, community, district, and national levels—UNICEF helps to ensure that children and their families have access to safe water and clean sanitation facilities. UNICEF is involved in every aspect of project managment, from planning, implementation, operations and maintenance. In addition, UNICEF sponsors a wide range of activities and trainings, providing hygiene education, drilling hand pump wells, building latrines, and improving water quality, with the goal that community members participate in these activities and ultimately are responsible for longterm sustainability. With close to 50 percent of the population in many developing countries below the age of 18, UNICEF makes certain that children are influential participants in community water and sanitation programs.

Children have a right to an education and to a healthy environment. UNICEF supports school-based water, sanitation, and hygiene programs to make school children healthier. Healthier children are more effective learners and attend school more regularly. Improved access to water allows children, particularly girls, to spend less time fetching water and more time in school. Schools that provide separate sanitation facilities in schools can reduce dropout rates, especially among girls.

Access to clean water and sanitation is crucial to a healthy life, but it is the correct use of these facilities that ultimately leads to the decrease in disease. Hygiene is a key factor. UNICEF supports hygiene education in schools and communities so that children and mothers are agents of change. Hygiene education provides children and mothers with the foundation for a healthy life and creates a demand for safe water and sanitation facilities.

In emergencies, safe water and sanitation is critical. UNICEF takes the lead in the provision of water and sanitation services in emergencies and crises around the world. UNICEF has a long-established presence in water and sanitation and is often the first United Nations agency on the ground providing water and sanitation in emergencies. UNICEF trucks water to disaster zones, providing relief to those whose water supplies are disrupted. UNICEF is the world's leading supplier of oral rehydration therapy, which helps reduce diarrhea-related deaths.