Access to clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure (WASH) and related health benefits are widely enjoyed in high-income countries. WASH access is closely related to housing, which makes the provision, funding, operation and maintenance the responsibility of property owners. As a result, people without a permanent home, including people experiencing homelessness in urban areas, are often excluded from access. For them, homeless shelters, shelter services and public WASH infrastructure are often the only options.
What is already challenging under “normal” circumstances is complicated during extreme weather events: during heat waves, individuals require more water for hydration and cooling; flooding makes public toilets inaccessible; extreme cold disrupts the water supply. People affected by homelessness suffer particularly from the failure of the infrastructure and the resulting disease burden.
Despite the high societal relevance according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 to “ensure water and sanitation for all”, and despite the human right to water and sanitation, the needs of people without homeless people are not yet fully met; WASH inequalities and the resulting burden of disease remain hidden and under-researched in official statistics. And despite the increasing frequency, intensity and unpredictability of extreme weather events, and evidence that extreme weather events threaten the daily life and health of homeless people, the impact on WASH infrastructure, and the consequences for homeless people and their health are not yet fully understood.
With this ITC-funded Blue Skies project in collaboration with the University of Bonn, we aim to fill both knowledge gaps and involve homeless people as key actors to identify appropriate solutions and interventions. Specifically, the following activities will be undertaken:
- In-depth walking interviews with the target population of our research, people experiencing homelessness, to document through photos and jointly map water and health challenges
- Joint inspections and spot checks of water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure (in)accessible to people experiencing homelessness
- Focus group discussions with different relevant stakeholders such as representatives of homeless associations, authorities and social workers supporting and working with people experiencing homelessness, to identify suitable interventions
- Group mapping and discussing of issues rated to climate-resilient WASH by our target population on a maptable
Contact person:
Carmen Anthonj, ITC