Jornal de Riscos Ambientais

The Governance of Post-Disaster Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) Service Provision

Abstract

Mina Hosseinpourtehrani, Iftekhar Ahmed, Kim Maund

In the context of water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH), the impact of disasters such as floods, droughts, cyclones, and earthquakes varies from the extreme destruction of WaSH infrastructures and services to the quality and quantity of water resources. Inadequate sanitation and water supplies and poor hygiene behaviour in the aftermath of these disasters are generally significant reasons for diverse communicable and infectious diseases, thereby exposing many people to illnesses and death. Therefore, providing WaSH services is a critical requirement for survival and health in the initial stages of occurring a disaster and different actors have to solve such complexities in response to disasters. One of the issues that have been mostly associated with WaSH is the management and governance of the WaSH service provision after disaster. A critical aspect of governance is the involvement of state and non-state actors and their level of participation. In this study, the main WaSH governance issues in the context of disaster is reviewed indicating the importance of collaboration between government and NGOs in post-disaster WaSH service provision.