One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, non-human animals and ecosystems. It recognizes that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and inter-dependent. 

Schools around the globe struggle to provide good and well-maintained school sanitation facilities. The Toilets Making the Grade® school competition helps improve just that in a creative and fun way that will benefit schools, as well as local authorities, donors and NGOs. Improving sanitation can often start with simple and creative steps, which is why the competition is so motivating. After all, who wouldn't be motivated to improve school toilets if there was something to win?

Despite the proven impact and interrelationship between sanitation and climate change, sanitation is still not part of the climate conversation. It must be, not only to ensure the resilience of the infrastructure, communities and the ecosystems which we depend on in the face of a global climate emergency, but also to harness effective and under-utilised greenhouse gas mitigation possibilities. 

Recently, I gave a presentation focusing on the complex connection between menstrual health and environmental issues. Within the presentation, I explored various crucial facets of this relationship, including the challenges surrounding access and use of reusable menstrual products, the environmental consequences of climate change on menstrual health practices, and the pressing issues related to resource scarcity and access to essential water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, which are essential for ensuring dignified menstruation. Additionally, I touched upon the significance of menstrual waste and its effects on our water and soil.

Elisabeth von Muench, former moderator of the SuSanA discussion forum, is a dedicated Wikipedia editor. With over nine years of editing experience and nearly 50,000 edits to her name, she ranks among the top 2,000 editors globally for the English Wikipedia. Through volunteer work and paid assignments, she has improved and written numerous Wikipedia articles on WASH, climate change, and SDGs. In this interview with Paresh Chhajed-Picha, Elisabeth explains her motivation, the need for wider participation in editing Wikipedia articles, and the challenges in doing so. 

I am in favour of market-based solutions. Viva con Agua’s aims to expand its work related to social water and sanitation enterprise development.  Sustainably designed business models can help ensure that human rights can be fully realised. However, a recent evening in Berlin led to some thoughts and inspired this blog.

Belinda Abraham, Viva con Agua Institutional Fundraising.

Berlin, Germany

On this special occasion of World Toilet Day, we are honoured to have Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation, join us for an enlightening conversation. After founding 16 companies and gaining financial independence at 40, Prof Jack Sim retired from business to devote the rest of his life to social development. He founded the World Toilet Organization in 2001, made the 19th November the official UN World Toilet Day approved by all 193 countries at the UN General Assembly, and broke the taboo on Sanitation globally. He is fondly known as Mr Toilet by the global media and is a founding member of SuSanA since 2008. In this interview, Mr Sim shares his insights on a range of critical issues, from his pioneering efforts to shift global media attention from water to sanitation, to the profound impact of the lack of toilets and proper sanitation on women. He also sheds light on the urgent need to break the taboo surrounding toilets and sanitation, and the steps needed to ensure that sanitation takes its rightful place on the global agenda.

Would you like to take part at the World Water Week in Stockholm next year but don´t know what will await you there? We got you, dive with us into some helpful tips that will make your time in Stockholm something you will never forget! Every year the World Water Week brings together an impressive range of water and sanitation professionals, policymakers, and  stakeholders that all have a common goal, to push sustainable and just water policies and reach the goals of SDG6 in regards of the Agenda2030. Together, the participants engage in meaningful discussions to address the most pressing global water challenges of our time.

Why do women’s networks matter for the achievement of SDG 6? A lot, and this is why: Achieving SDG 6 by 2030 is becoming increasingly unlikely, it would need a quadrupling of current rates of progress in safely managed drinking water services, safely managed sanitation services and basic hygiene services for hitting the finish line. The water and sanitation sector is facing many challenges, one is the massive capacity gap and gender gap in the water and sanitation workforce.

Two weeks ago, the SuSanA Secretariat together with the SuSanA Global Steering Committee (GSC), SuSanA members and key partners from around the world attended the Stockholm World Water Week and were able to speak on behalf of the Sanitation Community. But before the World Water Week even started, the Secretariat and the GSC spent several days planning for the future of SuSanA, discussing important topics such as the institutional change process, funding, upcoming topics and trends, the regional chapters or cooperation with other networks. These days have been very intense, but also, we feel that we now are more aligned with what the next steps for SuSanA are!

What a great week it has been!! The SuSanA Secretariat together with SuSanA members and key partners from around the world attended the conference and were able to speak on behalf of the Sanitation Community. Thanks to the efforts of many individuals, SuSanA was able to advocate for the inclusion of sanitation and hygiene as a prerequisite for access to safe and clean water