Why is washing your hands so important?

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Today, Global Handwashing Day, poses a question to each of us: why are clean hands still important? During public health crises, this is often clear. For many of us, regularly washing our hands with soap and clean water was part of our daily routine to keep COVID-19 at bay. But while the peak of the coronavirus pandemic may now have waned, the importance of hand hygiene has not.  

Indeed, washing our hands is crucial for so many things: preventing and controlling a range of infections – from the common cold to superbugs, keeping women and their babies safe during childbirth, and keeping children healthy and in school.  

But we’re still a long way off from everyone, everywhere having access to this fundamental.

A quarter of homes worldwide don’t have somewhere for people to wash their hands with soap and water. 

So what are the solutions? Well, progress needs to accelerate, access to handwashing facilities must go hand-in-hand with robust behaviour change programmes, and governments need to take the lead to make these changes happen at scale.  

In this edition, explore the many benefits of good hand hygiene and the approaches to make it a reality for everyone. 

Dr Om Prasad Gautam, PhD, MPH, MA and Sophie Hickling

The continued importance of hand hygiene

During COVID-19, the importance of hand hygiene was front and foremost. But while the peak of that pandemic may now have waned, the importance of hand hygiene has not. Here we discuss why governments, donors, businesses and civil society must continue to prioritise universal access to hand hygiene. 

Technical guide for handwashing facilities in public places 

Our updated guide, co-produced with UNICEF , provides best practice guidelines for the design, installation, operation and maintenance of handwashing facilities. It also includes sample designs from our programmes and checklists for monitoring, safety and inclusivity. 

Improving hygiene behaviours in schools and health centres in Madagascar, Nepal and Tanzania

Using emotional triggers in hygiene programmes are more effective at changing behaviours, research suggests. We’re working in 74 schools and 45 healthcare facilities in Madagascar, Nepal and Tanzania to promote better hand hygiene practices.  

Lessons from the COVID-19 Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition

We know it's crucial for people to wash their hands with soap and water frequently to reduce the risk of infections. This coalition built on our experience of running hygiene promotion and behaviour change campaigns and promoted four key behaviours to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.

Breaking the infection chain in Cambodia's healthcare facilities 

Environmental cleaning plays a critical role in preventing infections in health centres, but often receives insufficient attention in low- and middle-income countries. This report summarises key learnings from the Clean Frontline project, a training programme to strengthen environmental cleaning practices in hospitals across Cambodia. 

More from our experts

• ‘You cannot fully grasp the gravity of suffering until it happens to you’: A week after flash floods surged into his home in Harisiddhi, Avash Karmacharya from WaterAid Nepal wrote about grappling with the aftermath of the climate-induced disaster. 
• Sanitation an ‘afterthought’: Tim Wainwright , chief executive of WaterAid UK, told POLITICO that water, sanitation and hygiene had been "treated as an afterthought" in the UN General Assembly’s Political Declaration on Antimicrobial Resistance, despite being "our readily available first-line defence".

Top image: Manita Thami washes her son's hands and feet in Dolakha, Nepal. WaterAid/Mani Karmacharya

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