WHO global water, sanitation and hygiene: Annual report 2025

Overview

Safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) remained fundamental to health, disease prevention, resilience and equity in 2025, but the global context for action became more difficult. Despite progress since 2015, the world remains dangerously off track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. Billions of people still lack safely managed drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene services, and more than 1 billion people receive care in health care facilities without even basic water services. The consequences remain severe: inadequate WASH contributes to an estimated 1.4 million deaths each year, while cholera, conflict and climate shocks continue to expose the fragility of essential services. 

In this context, WHO’s role is distinctive. The Organization does not build infrastructure directly. Instead, it translates health risk science into norms, tools, data and partnerships that help make WASH safe at scale.

The work highlighted in this report demonstrates both the scale of the unfinished agenda and the continuing value of WHO’s contribution. In a year marked by tighter funding, rising climate and conflictrelated pressures, and growing demand for stronger systems, WHO continued to deliver high-leverage global public goods through a lean model focused on norms, monitoring, regulation and partnerships. The transition to the 2026–2035 strategy therefore marks not a change in mandate, but a sharper focus on what is now most needed: ensuring that WASH services are not only expanded, but made safe, equitable, resilient and sustainable.