ADB WASH and health webinar: WaterAid’s health systems strengthening approach for WASH in healthcare facilities

This presentation discussed a health systems-strengthening approach to improve WASH in health care facilities; hand and environmental hygiene behavior change in health care facilities; and how WASH links to health security and antimicrobial resistance. It also highlighted the progression of WASH interventions at the global level, particularly noting the milestone of the 2019 approval of the WASH in health care facilities resolution at the World Health Assembly.

Vanita Suneja

Vanita has over 25 years of experience in the development sector. She has been working on a wide range of issues including water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), small holder agriculture, forest governance, rural livelihoods, women’s land rights, renewable energy, climate change, extractives and mining. She is currently leading the policy and advocacy work with WaterAid at the South Asia regional level. Prior to WaterAid, Vanita worked with Oxfam India and the Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development in New Delhi.

Virginia Newton-Lewis

Virginia specializes in water security as it relates to WASH. She has worked on a wide range of water issues including food security, irrigation, water resources management, and flood risk management. She holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia, where she explored the topic of agricultural-to-urban water allocation.

City-wide inclusive sanitation: WaterAid’s experience

This presentation provided an overview of WaterAid’s approach, including (i) WaterAid’s framing of citywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS); (ii) town-wide modeling: the experience in Sakhipur, Bangladesh; (iii) research and influencing to address the working conditions of sanitation workers (global and in India); and (iv) a study on the functionality of wastewater treatment plants.

WaterAid: A WASH strong COVID-19 response

In this presentation, WaterAid shared their response to COVID-19 in Asia and the Pacific, specifically in the eight countries they work in: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste. Given the changing dynamics of the pandemic, WaterAid has taken a context-specific and phased approach to support government-led action plans, depending on rate of transmission and lockdowns, and prioritizing the most marginalized groups.