
It’s hard to imagine there is anybody on earth who has not experienced a WASH1 event at least once in their life. We feel confident including Presidents and Popes in this statement. Chances are that even the wealthiest on earth have called for their motorcade to halt, allowing them to exit the vehicle and scamper for the roadside bushes.
WASH events may rule briefly and remembered as an embarrassing side-of-the-road experience worthy of a laugh. But for people who are homeless, WASH events are a human health tragedy. Local communities share in these WASH events, which cannot solved by humour or neglect.
Pop quiz: what single fundamental requirement is essential for a person who is unhoused and waiting to move to housing they currently cannot afford: shelter, water, sanitation or hygiene (WASH)?
Answer: WASH, all of it.
Cities in wealthy countries may offer temporary shelter of one form or another for overnight sleep. But daytime survival for all healthy humans, housed and unhoused alike, requires WASH. For the unhoused, not only are those facilities often scarce to non-existent, they are often deliberately made unavailable.
A recent study explores the scope of this problem in cities in high income countries. The researchers in this study were interested in the intersection of WASH and climate change among people who are homeless. The authors identify gaps in the existing research and also offer a framework of the issues to guide future investigations. Read more in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health: Invisible struggles: WASH insecurity and implications of extreme weather among urban homeless in high-income countries