When people don't have access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), they are more likely to suffer from diarrheal illness, malnutrition and stunted growth. Globally, 663 million people lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.4 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation, which contributes to the 840,000 deaths that occur from diarrheal disease each year.^[1]

The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) project is a 5-year (2016–2021) task order that works to improve WASH programming by identifying, sharing, and guiding the use of best practices for the delivery of WASH services and sustained behavior change. The project aims to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality in children under 5 by employing high-impact, evidence-based environmental health and WASH interventions in the most vulnerable and underserved populations.

The project works with USAID, country governments, key sector donors, and implementers to fill evidence gaps related to rural sanitation and behavior change. WASHPaLS is implemented by Tetra Tech in collaboration with a team of globally renowned non-governmental organizations and small business partners, including Aquaya Institute, FHI 360, FSG, and Iris Group.

Core services provided by WASHPaLs include:

• Provide technical assistance in the areas of water, sanitation, hygiene, behavior change, and monitoring and evaluation.
• Conduct implementation research on WASH interventions, with a focus on behavioral- and market-based interventions for safe disposal of feces and hygienic play areas for young children.
• Investigate and share innovative approaches to WASH behavior change programming.
• Develop and share an information and communications technology tool that supports Community Led Total Sanitation.
• Engage with missions, national stakeholders and the global WASH community to advance the adoption of evidence-based policy and programming.

View the WASHPaLS factsheet [PDF, 490KB] for more information.

^[1]www.tetratech.com