Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
Access to safe water and sanitation for everyone is crucial
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- မြန်မာ
The challenge
Children need safe water, basic toilets and good hygiene to survive and thrive.
However, access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services is increasingly challenging for most families across Myanmar due to ongoing conflict, displacement, loss of livelihoods, and severe disruptions and damage to critical infrastructure and supply routes.
Natural disasters and extreme weather conditions, such as cyclones and flooding during the monsoon season, further aggravate the situation. These events devastate communities and contaminate water sources, heightening the risk of waterborne disease outbreaks such as acute watery diarrhea and cholera.
During the peak of the dry season, many sources of safe water dry up, forcing families in many areas to resort to open and shallow water sources, which are often contaminated. This increases the risks of waterborne diseases such as cholera and acute watery diarrhea, further compromising the health and safety children and families.
The situation is particularly dire for displaced families enduring overcrowded conditions in camps and other displacement sites. These areas often have limited WASH facilities, making access to clean water, hygiene, and sanitation services scarce. The overcrowding exacerbates health risks, as inadequate sanitation and hygiene can lead to the rapid spread of waterborne diseases, further endangering the well-being of already vulnerable children and families.
Some 8.9 million people are in need of critical WASH services across Myanmar:
- Over 40 per cent of households have no safely managed drinking water service
- Nearly 40 per cent of households do not have access to safely managed sanitation service; while, One out of three households lack basic hygiene services.
- Over 3.7 million IDPs are in urgent need of lifesaving WASH assistance and services (HNRP, 2026).
- Around one in four schools have a limited or no basic drinking water supply.
- WASH provision is also a challenge at health facilities. Myanmar’s child under 5 death rate, linked to unsafe water, sanitation, and handwashing, at 39 per 1,000 live births, is over 1.7 times higher than the average for Southeast Asia1
The solution
Amid the ongoing conflict and widespread disruption of critical services across Myanmar, UNICEF is providing vital water and sanitation support to the most vulnerable; the poorest children in cities, in camps for displaced people, in conflict-affected communities and in hard-to-reach areas.
Together with our partners, we are working to:
- deliver lifesaving humanitarian WASH services and supplies to IDPs and conflict-affected communities
- ensure equitable, safe, gender-sensitive and climate-resilient drinking water supply to vulnerable populations
- promote safe hygiene practices among vulnerable populations, including community-centered approaches to total sanitation and market-based sanitation in deprived communities
- bring climate-resilient water supply systems to rural areas
