Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) have a significant impact on health and, of particular concern as described in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Extreme Events, are the risks of more frequent and intense extreme weather events such as floods, cyclones and droughts, alongside increasing temperatures. Such extremes pose particular challenges to the capacity of WASH programmes to protect health, and there is accumulating evidence that climate change is worsening these risks.

A national programme of water safety plan (WSP) auditing was undertaken in 2018/19 with a particular focus on climate resilience, to learn lessons from the pilot WSPs and adapt the programme in advance of future scale-up.