On World Water Day, we face an increasing global water crisis: Billions of people still lack safely managed water, sanitation, and hygiene services. Overconsumption, pollution, climate-related changes in the water cycle, the destruction of watersheds, and important freshwater ecosystems are planetary challenges with urgent need to be addressed on all levels. At the same time, there are not enough skilled people to deliver on the systemic change needed towards sustainable, equal, resilient, and circular water and sanitation management that benefits people AND planet. 

This International Women’s Day, we celebrate the women who keep water and sanitation moving forward - designing, negotiating, governing, financing, managing and delivering services that people rely on every day. Despite barriers, women in water and sanitation jobs thrive to make a difference for water at all levels, from global to local. Over the past year, the Stronger Together! Coalition has turned momentum into action: building community, opening doors, and making sure water and sanitation decision-makers hear women’s voices. There is a lot to celebrate and we want to showcase a few 2025 highlights in bringing women’s perspectives onto global stages and holding conversations to elevate them and raise their voices.

Sanitation Champions is a SuSanA interview series celebrating the people driving progress in the sanitation sector. In each interview, they share their experiences, challenges, and insights, offering a personal look at their work and motivations to improve sanitation worldwide. As the SuSanA Secretariat, we aim to highlight these diverse voices to strengthen knowledge exchange, inspire collaboration, and introduce our global sanitation community. This time we introdue you to Juliet Willetts.

Sanitation Champions is a SuSanA interview series celebrating the people driving progress in the sanitation sector. In each interview, they share their experiences, challenges, and insights, offering a personal look at their work and motivations to improve sanitation worldwide. As the SuSanA Secretariat, we aim to highlight these diverse voices to strengthen knowledge exchange, inspire collaboration, and introduce our global sanitation community. This time we introdue you to Dr George Wainaina.

Sanitation Champions is a SuSanA interview series celebrating the people driving progress in the sanitation sector. In each interview, they share their experiences, challenges, and insights, offering a personal look at their work and motivations to improve sanitation worldwide. As the SuSanA Secretariat, we aim to highlight these diverse voices to strengthen knowledge exchange, inspire collaboration, and introduce our global sanitation community. This time we introdue you to Andrea Cáceres Almendrades.

Sanitation Champions is a SuSanA interview series celebrating the people driving progress in the sanitation sector. In each interview, they share their experiences, challenges, and insights, offering a personal look at their work and motivations to improve sanitation worldwide. As the SuSanA Secretariat, we aim to highlight these diverse voices to strengthen knowledge exchange, inspire collaboration, and introduce our global sanitation community. This time we introdue you to Emily Woods.

When we think about global development challenges, sanitation rarely makes the headlines. Yet, it is one of the most transformative investments a country can make—not just for health, but for economic growth, social progress, and environmental sustainability. Some argue that sanitation is more an economic issue than a health issue. Our experience supporting market-based sanitation activities suggests this is true. When sanitation markets thrive, new products and innovations enter the market, jobs are created, supply chains expand, and governments invest. The ripple effect is enormous. 

Sanitation Champions is a SuSanA interview series celebrating the people driving progress in the sanitation sector. In each interview, they share their experiences, challenges, and insights, offering a personal look at their work and motivations to improve sanitation worldwide. As the SuSanA Secretariat, we aim to highlight these diverse voices to strengthen knowledge exchange, inspire collaboration, and introduce our global sanitation community. This time we introdue you to Andy Narracott.

The challenge is clear. Despite decades of investment totalling billions of dollars from donors and governments, the world continues to fall behind on Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. According to the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) 2025 report, 2.1 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water and 3.4 billion people still lack safely managed sanitation.

Sanitation Champions is a SuSanA interview series celebrating the people driving progress in the sanitation sector. In each interview, they share their experiences, challenges, and insights, offering a personal look at their work and motivations to improve sanitation worldwide. As the SuSanA Secretariat, we aim to highlight these diverse voices to strengthen knowledge exchange, inspire collaboration, and introduce our global sanitation community. This time we introdue you to Chaiwe S Mushauko. 

In March 2025, amidst the vibrant atmosphere of the Nepal International Theatre Festival (NITFest), a unique workshop titled "Breaking Menstrual Stigma" unfolded at Mandala Theatre in Kathmandu. Facilitated by myself, Theresa Hübscher, alongside Malin Freytag and Saraswoti Chaudhary, the workshop employed Theatre of the Oppressed techniques to explore the myths, taboos, and realities of menstrual health in Nepal.

In 90’s, in the heart of rural Bangladesh, the idea of having a single family toilet at home was nearly unthinkable for many families. A personal latrine just for one household? A deep tubewell for a community? These were seen as luxuries - something you might dream about, but not expect.

Climate change and conflict are fuelling a resurgence of cholera in Africa, with progress toward elimination undermined by chronic underfunding, according to new analysis. In 2024, more than 175,000 cases of cholera and 2,700 deaths were reported in Southern and Eastern African countries, making it the deadliest cholera outbreak in that region in the past decade, according to a UN brief released this week (17 February).

Disclaimer: Find the Spanish version of the Article here.

The talk “Opening to ‘Modeling’ and its role in water quality management” addresses a crucial topic to face today's environmental challenges. However, to fully understand its importance and limitations, it is necessary to place it within a broader context: that of the circular economy.

Disclaimer: To read the article in Spanish click here.

The history of our struggles is intertwined with the management of our resources and the care of our land. In the face of the climate crisis, social inequalities and dependence on extractivist systems, it is time to look to our roots and adopt technologies that harmonize with nature. The implementation of dry toilets is not only a technical solution, but an act of cultural resistance and affirmation of sovereignty.

“What a Shit Movie!” - When I say this most people would probably assume I didn’t like it, since the term “shit” is commonly understood to have a negative implication. This captures the essence of Holy Shit, which challenges us to reshape our understanding and our relationship to our own feces.

The history of the advancements in sanitation and hygiene is often viewed through a Western lens, yet some of the most significant contributions came from the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age. Two famous figures of this era, Al-Razi and Ibn Sina, made groundbreaking strides in the understanding and promotion of hygiene. Their works not only influenced their contemporaries but also laid foundational principles that influenced even our modern perception of health and hygiene.

Integrity issues can undermine the work we do in sanitation and make our job harder, leaving behind rampant pollution and millions without dignified sanitation. Yet there’s a lot that we can do to prevent corruption and malpractice. People in the sector are in a good position to do something about it. 

Krishnanagar Union in Satkhira district, Bangladesh, has always been surrounded by water, but water is no longer a friendly neighbor. Satkhira district, located in the southwest of the country, is close to the Bay of Bengal and hosts part of the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world.

Gender equality is a sustainable development goal, a fundamental human right, and often a pillar of international development. Why then, do we see inconsistency in what it means to design and implement programmes that have gendered elements?