Health policy: global assembly approves three WASH resolutions

The 64th World Health Assembly (WHA) has adopted a resolution on drinking-water, sanitation and health, and two other related resolutions on cholera and Guinea worm (dracunculiasis). The WHA is the governance forum of the World Health Organization (WHO). It is the world's highest health policy setting body and is composed of health ministers from 193 member states.

The resolution on “Drinking-Water, Sanitation and Health” [1] recognises the global scale of the challenge of access to WASH and the multiple health benefits and economic advantages of WASH. It pushes for progressive realisation of human right to water and sanitation and for the provision of WASH in health centres, schools and other public buildings.

Early drafts of the cholera resolution [2] focused heavily on the role of vaccines but the final version provides strong recommendations on the need for WASH interventions. The resolution on dracunculiasis [3] was "weak" in comparison, according to WaterAid's Senior Health Policy Analyst Yael Velleman, because it failed to acknowledge the ongoing challenges in access to safe drinking water in the endemic countries.

WaterAid had issued a call to leaders [4] participating in the WHA to prioritise sanitation and water in the fight against diseases including cholera and dracunculiasis. Velleman concluded that the WHA was “positive step forward for WASH advocacy in the ongoing discussion on the role of WASH in health and human development”.