Institute for Water, Environment and Health

(UNU-INWEH)

Understanding knowledge, attitudes and practices around water and sanitation and raising awareness about the linkages between water, environment and health in order to empower communities to be able to address their own water-related challenges.  

Access to safe water is a key determinant of population and public health, particularly in low income countries.  Contamination from industrial, agricultural and primarily human waste continues to threaten both human and ecosystem health in many parts of the world.  Further, it is now widely recognized that the primary determinant for addressing the issues of global poverty is the provision of safe water; access to safe water enhances the potential for educational opportunities (particularly for girls) and facilitates participation in local community economic development. Water-related diseases associated with contamination are many: diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, shigella, polio, meningitis, and hepatitis A and E. Children and women are most severely and directly impacted by this contamination, due to physical vulnerability and exposure hence this project will help improve the quality of life in general for the whole community but specifically for children and women.  In many cases, these communities are solely dependent on lake water for drinking, fish (source of income and also food, nourishment and health) and other household uses. Understanding the relationship between drinking water and good health is vital to population and public health, as access to safe drinking water is a cornerstone of a healthy population.

To address these challenges, this initiative will:

(i) begin to understand the perceived links between water and health among local populations,

(ii) develop interventions to raise awareness of the links between water and health, and

(iii) evaluate those interventions so the learnings can be shared with other communities.

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