Call for Papers – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) interventions

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) interventions – the long view

Cambridge, June 15-16 2026

Call for Papers

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) interventions have saved millions of lives over the last century. The WHO estimates that three-quarters of the global population now has access to ‘safely managed’ water, and nearly sixty percent to ‘safely managed’ toilet facilities. Cholera, typhoid and dysentery have receded as major causes of death. Diarrhoeal diseases however remain a persistent problem amongst young children, and one of the outstanding puzzles of WaSH research is the variable impacts of these programmes on child health outcomes.

Surprisingly, these uneven and contested effects of WaSH interventions were also a feature of early sanitary programmes in high income settings. In Britain, the cradle of the ‘Sanitary Revolution’, cholera and typhoid mortality had fallen to very low levels in all major cities by the early 20^th century, despite very marked heterogeneities in water supplies and in the adoption of water-based faecal disposal systems. Infant diarrhoeal mortality on the other hand did not improve substantially until the 1910s. These variations hint at the complexities of transmission pathways for faecal-oral pathogens, and indicate the importance of local geographies, cultural practices and social inequalities to the design and success of public health interventions.

This conference invites papers that address WaSH interventions in comparative and/or historical contexts, using epidemiological, genomic, evolutionary, historical and other approaches. Questions to be addressed might include (but are not limited to): how universal are ‘best practice’ WaSH interventions; does the early ‘Sanitary Revolution’ provide any lessons for recent/current WaSH programmes; have public health and medical interventions  driven changes in pathogen arrays and pathogen evolution; under what conditions have faecal-oral diseases increased in incidence or severity; and what makes a successful WaSH programme?

The conference is free to attend, and some funding is available to support travel and accommodation for early career and student presenters.

The deadline for proposals is March 16^th 2026: please submit your proposal here or contact Romola Davenport.