USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA) provides comprehensive water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) assistance to deliver safe drinking water, promote healthy hygiene practices, and safely manage waste in crisis-affected and resilient communities. WASH interventions often include the construction or rehabilitation of water supply and sanitation systems and distribution of critical items such as soap and water containers. USAID/BHA partners with organizations to help populations recover from natural disasters, including earthquakes, drought, floods, and storms, that damage or destroy WASH infrastructure and increase the risk of water contamination. USAID/BHA supports WASH programming that is integrated with other sector activities—such as health and nutrition—to mitigate disease transmission, support the treatment of illness and malnutrition, and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable populations by improving their ability to adapt to and recover from shocks and stressors. Additionally, USAID/BHA works through Practice, Research, and Operations in WASH (PWS), a research, capacity building, and learning mechanism, to strengthen the impact of USAID/BHA-funded WASH programming in crisis-affected and resilient communities. PWS partnered with three USAID/BHA Resilience and Food Security Activities projects to assess hygiene conditions and apply lessons learned to strengthen future WASH programming.
