Making Waves: A research agenda for supporting a WASH sustainability transformations approach to climate change

Contemporary approaches to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) service resilience-building for climate change in low- and middle-income countries are often not fit for purpose. The current excessive focus on discrete, anticipated risks, such as water shortages due to dry spells and faecal contamination due to flooding, alone is unlikely to be sufficient in sustaining WASH services against future climate change. This is because broader socio-environmental impacts of climate change, such as ecosystem collapse and economic hardship, will be more consequential for WASH services. This Perspective outlines a research agenda in support of a WASH sustainability transformations approach to climate change that will contribute to realising broader societal and environmental sustainability. The proposed research agenda includes identifying 1) what WASH-related systems could be transformed and how; 2) what WASH-related systems should be transformed and when; 3) who leads and contributes to transformations; and 4) how transformations can be monitored and evaluated.