Ahead of COP 26, the WASH sector is asking whether water, sanitation, and hygiene are being neglected within global events. This follows last month’s United Nations Food Systems Summit and Africa Climate week, both of which highlighted the lack of attention paid to WASH.
WaterAid asked why clean water wasn’t on Africa Climate Week’s agenda and the World Wildlife Fund called out the UNFSS for failing to acknowledge rivers’ role in food production.
“Increasingly, since the declaration of the Sustainable Development Goals, we are experiencing growing neglect of WASH in major global conversations,” Hussaini Abdu, country director at CARE Nigeria, told Devex in an email.
This is despite WASH being linked with issues of both climate change and food security.
In a report on rivers’ role in food production, WWF said the UNFSS had neglected to acknowledge “the critical role that rivers play in feeding humanity.”