We in the water sector have an unusual relationship with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our highlighting of the unmet needs around water-related SDG 6 ought to hit home and prompt a response to tackle the concerns of this particular goal. Faced, though, with a response that falls short, we can point to multiple wider connections across other SDGs – partly in the hope of helping advance those goals, but partly also in the hope of leveraging these connections to secure progress on ‘our’ SDG 6.
Overplaying the connections risks undermining the case for water – an otherwise well-put argument can seem less than convincing if any weaknesses are apparent.
At the same time, there are aspects of development that do go hand in hand. The vital connection between water and health is one such example. Several of the news articles in this edition underline how evidence of the importance of this connection is still emerging.
One example is the issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with the World Health Organization (WHO) recently having published its research agenda on this theme (see News and Analysis).
At the core of the publication is a set of recommended research priorities that WHO has been working to advance. It includes fuller understanding of the contribution of WASH to, for example, reducing the need for antibiotic use, and strategies for WASH in health-care facilities. (See Analysis).
The research priorities that WHO highlights also include wider cross-cutting concerns, such as the need to gain a better understanding of how, for example, limited access to water and sanitation might contribute to infection with AMR.
In another dimension of the water-health connection, recent research has shed light on the impacts of flooding on human health (see News). The connection with direct impacts, from drowning to electrocution, is intuitively clear. However, this research has taken a broader approach than this.
One study, believed to be the world’s largest and most comprehensive of the long-term health impacts of flooding, looked at post-flood hospitalisations over a 20-year period for almost 750 communities in eight countries around the world. Looking overall and at 10 specific health issues, evidence of wider health impacts emerged.
Another study looked at the impact of floods on death rates over the last 20 years, again revealing evidence of wider impacts.
Faced with concerns around the prospects for more intense flooding due to climate change, such research points to growing relevance of this type of water-health connection on top of the more direct impacts.
Given such widening of the concerns around water-health connections, it is fitting that the recipient of last year’s IWA Global Water Award was Professor Joan Rose. Her views are shared in this issue (p25). She highlights in particular the prospect of a growing global microbial load – of both human and animal origin – on the water environment, as part of wider pressures on water quality.
Her expertise and passion reflect a deep connection within IWA between water and health – seen not least in our Specialist Group and our journal on these entwined themes. It is clear that this is a deep connection that will be of huge relevance in the years ahead.
Keith Hayward, Editor
