Safe water and basic sanitation would slash maternal deaths, report says

The lives of new mothers and babies are being put at risk by an unreliable supply of safe water, lack of good hygiene and an inadequate number of toilets, according to a report published by a group of health organisations.

The report, a joint publication by WaterAid, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the World Health Organisation (WHO), Unicef, UN population fund the UNFPA and the Share research consortium, calls for greater emphasis on water and sanitation in the next set of development goals.

An estimated 289,000 women die from childbirth complications each year. Researchers say this figure could be quickly reduced through better provision and monitoring of safe water, and basic sanitation and hygiene to prevent infection and improve care.

The report, From joint thinking to joint action: A call to action on improving water, sanitation and hygiene for maternal and newborn health, argues for better coordination between those promoting water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) programmes and the maternal health sector.

A separate report by the WHO, expected to be published early next year, finds that 38% of healthcare facilities in 54 low-income countries are without a decent water source, leaving doctors, nurses and midwives struggling to care for their patients.

The millennium development goal on reducing maternal mortality is one of the most off-track. While progress has been made in some countries, the maternal mortality rate for low- and middle-income countries remains high. In Tanzania, less than a third of births occur in places with safe water and sanitary conditions. Around 8,000 women in Tanzania die each year during or soon after giving birth. Sepsis from infection is understood to have caused at least 10% of these deaths.

Where hospitals are unable to provide sanitary conditions, nearly half of women give birth at home, where the chances of delivering a child in a clean environment are even lower. Only 1.5% of home births have safe water, hygiene and adequate sanitation.

Yael Velleman, senior policy analyst at WaterAid, said: “As governments work to help women and their babies survive childbirth, they must not neglect the basic building blocks of healthcare.”

Bruce Gordon, the coordinator of Wash at WHO, said: “Moving away from seeing these [clean water, sanitation and hygiene] as purely sanitary objectives and instead aligning them with professional health objectives which are an essential part of infection prevention could be simple ways to improve quality of care for mothers and newborns.”

Echoing the UN deputy secretary general, Jan Eliasson’s, comment in September that investing in sanitation should be prominent in the sustainable development goals, which are set to replace the MDGs when they expire next year, Gordon added: “In the SDG prioritisation, targeting water and sanitation in health facilities could drive a lot of change and save a lot of lives.”