Casablanca – A new WHO and UNICEF report on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in health-care facilities shows that 81% of facilities in Morocco had basic water services in 2025, while 13% had limited services and 6% had no water service. The country had an estimated 38.4 million people and an urbanization rate of 63% in the report’s 2025 estimates.
The picture was considerably weaker for sanitation. Only 10% of Moroccan health care facilities met the basic sanitation standard, while 82% had limited services and 7% had no sanitation service. The basic standard requires facilities to have improved and usable toilets that meet requirements for staff, sex separation, menstrual hygiene and people with limited mobility.
Hygiene services were available at the basic level in 43% of facilities. Another 50% had limited hygiene services and 7% had no hygiene service. The report defines basic hygiene as having functional hand hygiene facilities at points of care and water and soap at toilets.
Environmental cleaning was another major gap. Only 9% of Moroccan facilities met the basic standard, while 15% had limited services and 75% had no environmental cleaning service. Basic cleaning requires both cleaning protocols and trained staff.
Waste management performed better, although gaps remained. The report estimates that 32% of facilities had basic waste management services, 51% had limited services and 16% had no waste management service. Basic waste management requires waste to be segregated and safely treated and disposed of.
Morocco’s data also affected the wider regional picture. WHO and UNICEF said that reductions in Northern Africa and Western Asia were partly linked to newly established baselines in countries including Morocco, where coverage was recorded at 37% in the regional analysis. The report said these new country baselines lowered the regional average and cautioned that regional and global trends should be interpreted carefully.
Globally, the report found that 85% of health care facilities had basic water services in 2025, compared with 72% for hygiene, 71% for waste management, 59% for environmental cleaning and just 40% for sanitation. For the first time, global estimates were available for all five service areas.
