Innovation for Sustainable Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Services in Rural Areas

Dear Colleagues,

The  Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have achieved significant progress in increasing access to improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. According to the UN, between 2000 and 2017, 1.8 billion people gained access to at least basic drinking water services (DWS), the population lacking at least basic services decreased from 1.1 billion to 785 million, and the population using safely managed DWS increased from 61% to 71%. For sanitation services (wastewater and sewage treatment – WST), 2.1 billion people gained access to at least basic services and the population lacking basic services decreased from 2.7 billion to 2 billion. The population using safely managed WST increased from 28% to 45%. 3.4 billion people used safely managed WST and 2.2 billion used at least basic services.  However, 2.0 billion still lacked access to even basic services.. For hygiene as of 2017, the UN reports, “60% of the global population had basic handwashing facilities with soap and water available at home, 3 billion people still lacked basic handwashing facilities at home, and 1.6 billion had limited facilities lacking soap or water, and 1.4 billion had no facility at all [1] “

This progress is encouraging but much work remains to achieve full coverage, particularly in rural areas. The UN reports for 2000 to 2017, that while rural coverage of safely managed DWS increased from 39% to 53%, the gap in access between urban and rural areas only decreased from 47 to 32 percentage points.  Rural coverage of safely managed WST increased from 22% to 43%, while the gap between urban and rural areas decreased from 14 to 5 percentage points [1].  Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, clearly stated the challenge, “Safe water, sanitation and hygiene at home should not be a privilege of only those who are rich or live in urban centres. These are some of the most basic requirements for human health, and all countries have a responsibility to ensure that everyone can access them.”

This special issue takes up that challenge. Its purpose is to collect and disseminate concepts and proven results of innovation in all aspects of sustained access to WASH services in rural areas. Addressing rural need requires multifaceted innovation across all the factors that determine access to WASH services, including; institutional/governance, human resource, technical, economic/financial, environmental/natural resource, energy supply, socio-cultural, and service  (quantity, quality, reliability, cost, accessibility). Innovation needs to address the unit processes involved in sustained access to WASH services. These entail procurement/collection/generation, preliminary storage, treatment, post-treatment storage, transfer/distribution, consumption, disposal/recycling/reuse. Innovation includes integrated approaches to WASH services that address the interconnection and interdependences between (DWS), wastewater and sewage treatment (WST) , municipal solid waste (MSW) management, and all related aspects of hygiene. Assessment and evaluation of the effectiveness of installed WASH services in rural areas is another important aspect of needed innovation.

The scope of the special issue is broad in order to capture the range and types of innovation necessary to meet the rural WASH access challenge. The intent is to synthesize the scholarship and practice on the relevant science, technology, economics, policy, and social science domains to provide a rich resource for researchers and practitioners working to achieve safe and adequate WASH services to all.  

1. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization, 2019, Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2017: Special focus on inequalities. UNICEF, Division of Communication, NY, NY. https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/jmp-2017/en/ (Accessed 2021.01.15)

Dr. Garrick E. Louis
Prof. Vinka Oyanedel Craver
Dr. Ali Bouabid
Dr. Selvaraj Ambika
Guest Editors

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• WASH
• SDG
• Sustainability
• Sustainable Infrastructure
• Capacity Factors
• Unit Processes
• Inclusive Access
• Innovation
• Policy Analysis