World Water Week 2020: Bringing WASH and NTD sectors together will improve millions of lives

But this is not enough. Community transmission of NTDs can be reduced by WASH interventions, which include providing access to safe water and making basic sanitation facilities, like latrines, available. Equally important is the need for widespread behaviour change such as ending open defecation and improving personal hygiene. In fact, studies have shown that WASH interventions can contribute to reducing trachoma by up to 27 per cent, and schistosomiasis by as much as a staggering 77 per cent.

In Kenya, a good number of NGOs, private sector companies and ministries either have the potential to contribute, or are already contributing to, NTD control and elimination efforts yet they either knowingly or unknowingly work in silos. There is a big opportunity to eliminate NTDs as a major public health problem through proactively promoting and enabling positive collaboration among these organisations, which is what we are seeking to do this World Water Week.

Our report: Kenya’s ‘landscape analysis’

Sightsavers supported the ministry of health to develop a ‘landscape analysis’ of the state of NTDs and WASH in Kenya. The report was presented to key stakeholders, including ministry officials, funding and implementing partner agencies, and civil society.

This analysis presents the structure of both sectors, interventions carried out, key data in both areas and areas where integrated approaches are bound to have the most impact on efforts to control and eliminate targeted NTDs.

This World Water Week, our two key recommendations for stakeholders in the WASH and NTD sectors are:

1. Develop an integrated platform for WASH and NTD data to inform decision making. At the moment this data is either stored in different places, or missing completely. The process of pulling datasets together is complex and time-consuming, and hence big data is not sufficiently leveraged to make informed decisions by both sectors. An integrated platform will allow stakeholders to compare NTD prevalence and WASH coverage effectively. This data will be used to better inform on where improved WASH infrastructure can be best deployed, as well as where behaviour change activities can be best implemented for maximum impact.
2. Integrate WASH and NTDs interventions through strategic collaboration. Set up and maintain national and county-level forums for WASH and NTD stakeholders to help open up opportunities for strategic collaborations. The overall aim of these forums is to conduct advocacy, provide advisory support to the counties, and to monitor performance of WASH and NTD interventions against the set national and county goals.

The NTD sector and the World Health Organization already recognise WASH as critical to eliminating NTDs. It’s time for both sectors in Kenya to embrace a proactive push toward eliminating NTDs in stronger partnership – and it starts now, at World Water Week 2020.

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