Water sanitation and hygiene for accelerating and sustaining progress on neglected tropical diseases: A global strategy 2015-2020.

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are critical in the prevention and care for all of the 17 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) scheduled for intensified control or elimination by 2020.

Provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene is one of the five key interventions within the global NTD roadmap. Yet to date, the WASH component of the strategy has received little attention and the potential to link efforts on WASH and NTDs has been largely untapped.

Focused efforts on WASH are urgently needed if the global NTD roadmap targets are to be met. This is especially needed for NTDs where transmission is most closely linked to poor WASH conditions such as soil-transmitted helminthiasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma and lymphatic filariasis.

This strategy aims to mobilise WASH and NTD actors to work together towards the roadmap targets. It calls on WASH funders and implementers to target NTD endemic areas and deliver programmes that maximise the effectiveness of WASH interventions for NTD control and elimination.