Strengthening water, sanitation, and hygiene services in health establishments: An urgent priority of WHO.

Acknowledging the importance of WASH practices in health establishments, policy makers, national and international concerned stakeholders, and the World Health Organization (WHO) have prioritized the issue and thus, a target for attaining universal basic coverage of WASH in health care facilities by the year 2030 has been set.[1] However, at the same time multiple challenges have been identified such as limited political will, absence of well-funded and periodically reviewed policies on WASH in health establishments in almost 75% of the nations, wide disparity in WASH facilities within a nation depending on the urban/rural area or type of health establishment, availability of limited data with regard to types and quality of services in health care facilities, and lack of uniform definitions/ indicators to comprehensively assess or compare the WASH indicators of countries.[1,3,6]