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? 

As SIWI World Water Week 2024 kicks off in Stockholm this week, we are reminded of the profound importance of water and sanitation cooperation in fostering peace and security across the globe. This year's theme, "Bridging Borders: Water for a Peaceful and Sustainable Future," reminds us of the intricate interconnections between and across communities and nations and emphasizes the need for collaborative efforts to secure a better future for all. Ensuring that sanitation systems are robust and adaptable to climate challenges is not only essential for safeguarding public health but for promoting regional stability and sustainable development. The Climate Resilient Sanitation Coalition (CRSC) of more than 30 leading organizations that work at this intersection recognizes the significance of climate-resilient sanitation (CRS) in building a peaceful, secure, and sustainable future.

We're nearly 10 years into the SDGs, and unfortunately, we have to call the sector out. Many people still don't understand what safely managed sanitation is. This lack of clarity is hampering authorities to take action to prevent millions of people being exposed to harmful pathogens. We need to resolve this fast because every day, almost 4,000 people are dying from diseases attributable to poor water, sanitation and hygiene, nearly 1,000 of them children under five. 

El Taller de Diálogos SIRWASH en políticas públicas para la asequibilidad de los servicios rurales de agua y saneamiento en el contexto de los países Latinoamericanos y del Caribe estuvo organizado gracias a la colaboración entre la Agencia Suiza para el Desarrollo y la Cooperación (COSUDE) Y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) en alianza con la Fundación Nacional de Salud Brasil (FUNASA). 

English Version below. 

In September 2021, Hurricane Ida dropped more than six inches of rain on New York City in a matter of hours. Roughly half of that rainfall, 3.15 inches, fell within the first hour—nearly twice the rate the city’s infrastructure was designed to handle. 

At 11am that day, I got a call from my daughter’s school in the outskirts of the NYC metropolitan area asking me to collect my daughter ASAP. The school basement was filling with water … fast. By the end of the day, the school was shuttered, and the surrounding community evacuated. Meanwhile, outside my front door in suburban New York, neighbours were piling the contents of their basements onto the sidewalk. ‘The neighbourhood’s shit is in my basement!’ one exclaimed. Social media was filled with discordant images of flooded streets and Teslas floating through them.

Kiritimati Island is a unique place. Situated within the Line Islands group of the Republic of Kiribati, an island country spanning almost 3.5 million km2 of ocean, it isn’t easy to find on a map. The closest international airport (other than its own) is in Honolulu – more than 2,000 km away. The capital of its own country is even farther away. Despite being  the largest coral atoll in the world, as of 2020 only 7,369 people live there.