Only 40% Of World’s Health Facilities Meet Basic Sanitation Standards UN

Only 40% of World’s Health Facilities Meet Basic Sanitation Standards UN Only 40 per cent of health care facilities worldwide had basic sanitation services in 2025, leaving hundreds of millions of people without access to adequate toilets and sanitation, according to new figures from the World Health Organisation WHO and UNICEF.

The agencies said 11 per cent of health care facilities had no sanitation service at all, affecting an estimated 936 million people.

The findings are contained in the latest WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme report on water, sanitation, hygiene, environmental cleaning and waste management in health care facilities. The report tracks progress through 2025 and highlights persistent gaps in essential services needed to provide safe health care. Basic sanitation refers to improved facilities designed to hygienically separate human waste from contact, including usable toilets dedicated to patients and staff. The sanitation shortfall is part of a broader WASH crisis in health facilities. Globally, 85 per cent of health care facilities had basic water services in 2025, up from 76 per cent in 2015. However, 11 per cent had no water service, affecting about 907 million people. The report also found that only 59 per cent of facilities had basic environmental cleaning services in 2025, while 18 per cent had no environmental cleaning service. Poor sanitation and hygiene in health facilities can increase the risk of infections and undermine the safety of patients, health workers and visitors.

The burden is particularly serious in poorer and fragile settings, where health facilities often struggle with inadequate infrastructure, unreliable water supplies and limited resources for sanitation and waste management. The WHO and UNICEF said improving WASH services in health care facilities is essential to infection prevention and control and to ensuring quality health care. The agencies are calling for greater investment in infrastructure, stronger monitoring and policies that integrate water, sanitation and hygiene into national health planning. The latest figures underscore a basic contradiction facing health systems worldwide: facilities established to protect and treat patients can themselves lack the sanitation needed to keep people safe.