A Majority of patients and health workers are still using facilities that do not meet minimum sanitation requirements, according to a report released jointly by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF on Wednesday.
With only four in ten health care facilities reported as having basic sanitation in 2025, millions of people seeking treatment could be exposed to unhygienic toilets and inadequate sanitation at the very places where they go to receive care.
The 2026 WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme report, Progress on water, sanitation, hygiene, environmental cleaning and waste management in health care facilities 2015-2025, also found that only 59 per cent of health care facilities met the basic standard for environmental cleaning. This means four in ten health facilities did not have the required combination of cleaning protocols and trained cleaning staff.
The situation is particularly concerning because poor sanitation and cleaning in health facilities can make it harder to maintain a safe environment for patients, health workers and visitors. The report found that 18 per cent of health care facilities had neither the required cleaning protocols nor trained cleaning staff. These facilities serve an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide.
According to WHO, basic sanitation requires improved toilets that are usable and accessible to patients and staff, including women and girls and people with limited mobility. But one per cent of health care facilities had no sanitation service at all, affecting approximately 936 million people.
The findings come despite improvements in other areas of water, sanitation and hygiene over the past decade.
Between 2015 and 2025, global coverage of basic water services in health care facilities increased from 76 per cent to 85 per cent. Basic hygiene services rose from 55 per cent to 72 per cent, while basic waste-management services increased from 59 per cent to 71 per cent.
But the report says having infrastructure in place is not enough. A health facility may have a toilet, handwashing station or water supply, for example, but patients still face risks if the toilet is unusable, the water is unavailable when needed, or the facility is not regularly and properly cleaned.
“Monitoring should increasingly assess reliability, safety, accessibility and cleanliness, as well as whether services meet the needs of patients and health workers,” the report says. The authors therefore call for countries to strengthen routine monitoring to assess not only whether facilities have WASH infrastructure, but whether those services are safe, functional, accessible and usable by the people who depend on them.
They also recommend asking patients and health workers about their experiences with sanitation, hygiene, water and cleaning services as a way of measuring the quality of care.
The report warns, however, that the global picture remains incomplete because many countries do not regularly collect or report the required data. Basic water estimates were based on data from 84 countries, while basic waste-management estimates came from 79 countries, representing 52 per cent of the world’s population.
Data coverage was below 50 per cent for basic sanitation, with estimates from 70 countries, and for basic hygiene, with estimates from 67 countries. Environmental cleaning estimates were available from only 54 countries, representing 40 per cent of the world’s population-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
