UNICEF & Lindström
Clean hands and drinking water
Our journey with UNICEF WASH programme in India began in 2007, when we started our operations in the country and wanted to give back to the community.
The objective of the programme is to provide equitable access and use of sustainable, safe, and affordable water, sanitation and hygiene services, where the its name WASH comes from.
The objectives of WASH programme
We have supported the WASH programme in three different states. Since 2018, we have been supporting the nationwide programme.
Why does WASH programme matter?
India has accelerated progress towards achieving universal access to safely managed water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). However, major deprivations affecting children and women remain, particularly in rural and marginalised communities.
Globally India is the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change. The effects manifest in cyclones, heavy rainfall, floods, landslides and droughts which affected many Indian children. It is estimated to that close to 90 % of the burden of disease attributable to climate change is borne by children under the age of five.
Highlighting results from 2023
In 2023, the WASH proramme had two key themes; (1) Building community resilience, and (2) Gender, equity and leaving no one behind. Below, you can see a few examples of the focus areas and the achieved results from 2023.
Sanitation and waste management
UNICEF helped reach 1.39 million people with safely managed household toilets. Over 500,000 villages also achieving Open Defecation Free plus (ODF+) status, which includes solid and liquid waste management services.
UNICEF supported a capacity building campaign on sanitation. It reached over 830,000 village representatives, helping the acceleration towards safe sanitation.
Safe drinking water
UNICEF supported the national water supply flagship programme (Jal Jeevan Mission). It provided access to safely managed water services to over 10.4 million people in rural households.
The focus of UNICEF’s technical support was on community engagement, climate resilience, operation and maintenance, water quality monitoring and surveillance.
WASH in schools
In 2023, 60,789 schools got access to improved WASH services and 9,958 schools became climate resilient.
In total 168,340 schools were equipped to develop and implement School Sanitation Action plans through UNICEF’s technical support. Guidelines for environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient WASH in Schools were developed in 9 States.
WASH in childcare centers
As almost half of all Childcare centers or Anganwadi centers (AWC’s) operate out of rented premises, gaps persist in infant friendly WASH facilities.
Operational plans were developed and rolled out based on gap assessment. Planning and capacity building for climate resilient WASH facilities in AWC’s was done in 3 states.
Menstrual hygiene management
Approximately 3.1 million females were reached through promotional events on Menstrual Hygiene Day in 2023.
UNICEF helped launch Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) road maps in 3 states to address issues and bottlenecks around MHM. Efforts to create MHM friendly environment in the schools was supported in 5 States.
WASH in healthcare facilities
UNICEF supported hundreds of public healthcare facilities in integrating hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation practices.
More than 55,000 healthcare service providers were trained on WASH in Healthcare facilities (HCF) in 4 states helping in improved program delivery.
The latest stories and reports from the collaboration
UNICEF WASH programme 2023 empowered communities with safe water and menstrual hygiene, improving millions of lives. Learn more!
UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programme is one of the most important programmes to improve the lives of children and their families.