Resources
A curated reading list of trusted public sources for water safety, sanitation, and conservation. We do not republish. We just point.
All links go to third-party organisations. We do not control, endorse, or take responsibility for their content. See Terms of use. Where available we list the main page first, then a feed or newsroom link.
Drinking water and sanitation
WHO — Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
The World Health Organization's WASH programme: guidelines, fact sheets, outbreak news.
WHO — Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality
The reference framework used worldwide for what counts as safe drinking water.
UNICEF — WASH
Water, sanitation and hygiene for children and communities; field reports and country data.
CDC — Healthy Water
U.S. Centers for Disease Control household-water and global-WASH guidance and outbreak coverage.
WaterAid
NGO focused on safe water, toilets, and hygiene; news and country case studies.
Standards and outbreak surveillance
Sphere Standards — WASH chapter
Minimum humanitarian standards for water supply, sanitation, and hygiene promotion.
US EPA — Drinking Water
Safe Drinking Water Act regulations, contaminant limits, and reports.
WHO — Disease Outbreak News
Verified, country-level outbreak alerts — including waterborne diseases such as cholera.
ReliefWeb — WASH
OCHA's clearinghouse for humanitarian reports, including WASH-tagged updates.
Water risk, drought, and conservation
UN Water
Coordination body for the UN's water and sanitation work; publications and policy briefs.
WRI Aqueduct
World Resources Institute's open water-risk atlas: stress, drought, flood, by basin.
Pacific Institute
Independent research on water, sustainability, and climate.
Global Water Partnership
Network advocating integrated water-resource management; country and regional updates.
NOAA — U.S. Drought Monitor
Weekly U.S. drought conditions; useful pattern reference even if you're elsewhere.
Copernicus — European Drought Observatory
EU Joint Research Centre drought indicators and bulletins, with global views.
Household and low-cost treatment science
Eawag — Sandec
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science, Department for Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste in Developing Countries.
SuSanA — Sustainable Sanitation Alliance
Open community of practice on sanitation; case studies and a public discussion forum.
CAWST
Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology — training, biosand filter manuals, factsheets.
Peer-reviewed journals
For deeper reading. Many articles are paywalled; journal homepages list current issues and open-access content.
- Journal of Water and Health (IWA Publishing)
- Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development (IWA Publishing)
- Water Research (Elsevier)
- Water (MDPI, open access)
How to use this list
- Start with WHO and your country's public-health authority for guidance you can act on.
- Use UNICEF, WaterAid, IRC, and CAWST for field-tested practitioner material.
- Use Eawag/Sandec, SODIS, and the journals when you want primary research.
- Use Aqueduct, Pacific Institute, AQUASTAT, and the drought observatories to understand the wider water situation in your region.
If you know a freely-available, reputable resource that belongs here, propose it through the project's source repository. We keep this list short and trusted on purpose.