Only 40% of world’s health facilities meet basic sanitation standards: UN

The report from the World Health Organization and UNICEF for the first time provided global estimates of basic sanitation services in healthcare settings.

Its 2025 estimate found significant gaps in access to basic sanitation standards. It it stated required usable facilities including at least one toilet dedicated to staff, at least one sex-separated toilet with menstrual hygiene facilities and at least one toilet accessible for people with limited mobility.

Relying on data from 70 countries, the report showed that sanitation levels in healthcare facilities varied widely between regions, with only 23% of facilities in sub-Saharan Africa providing basic services, compared to 55% in central and southern Asia.

Along with sanitation, the report estimated access in healthcare facilities to water, hygiene, environmental cleaning and waste management.

It found that an estimated 85% of facilities last year had basic water services, 72% had basic hygiene services and 71% basic healthcare waste management services.

Only 59% of facilities meanwhile met basic so-called environmental cleaning standards. It require both cleaning protocols and trained cleaning staff and is core to infection prevention and control.

A full 18% of facilities, serving around 1.5 billion people, met neither of the environmental cleaning requirements, stated the report. It for this category relied on data from 54 countries.

The situation is particularly dire in poorer countries.

The environmental cleaning standard was met by just 24% of facilities in the world’s least-developed nations.