Last updated: November 3, 2026
These Terms of Service govern access to and use of this Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Healthcare Facilities resource website (the “Siteâ€). By using the Site, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Site.
Purpose of the Site
The Site preserves educational and research materials concerning water supply, sanitation, hygiene, environmental cleaning, waste management, infection prevention and control, sustainability, monitoring, and quality improvement in healthcare facilities. Its intended audience includes public-health professionals, healthcare-facility personnel, researchers, students, implementers, governments, and development partners.
Information Is Not Clinical or Engineering Advice
Content is provided for education, research, and program-learning purposes. It is not a substitute for patient-specific medical advice, an infection-control investigation, professional engineering design, water-safety approval, laboratory accreditation, local regulatory review, or an emergency response plan. Conditions differ by facility and jurisdiction. Decisions affecting patients, staff, water treatment, plumbing, waste systems, or infection prevention should be reviewed by appropriately qualified professionals and the responsible authorities.
Permitted Use
You may browse, download, reference, and use materials for lawful research, teaching, planning, and non-commercial public-health work, subject to any copyright, license, citation, attribution, or use notice contained in the individual document. You may link to public pages and quote limited portions with appropriate attribution. A document’s own license or publisher terms take priority over these general terms.
Prohibited Use
You may not use the Site to violate law; misrepresent research findings; remove authorship or copyright notices; distribute malware; interfere with availability; attempt unauthorized access; harvest contact details; submit confidential patient or facility information through unsecured channels; or imply endorsement by Emory University, the Center for Global Safe Water, a funder, a research partner, or an author without written authorization.
Research Tools and Facility Assessments
Assessment forms, indicators, scoring systems, spreadsheets, and training materials may require adaptation, validation, permissions, enumerator training, quality assurance, and ethical or governmental approval before field use. A score should not be treated as a clinical certification or a guarantee of safety. Users remain responsible for data governance, informed consent where applicable, secure storage, interpretation, corrective-action planning, and compliance with national and local requirements.
Accuracy and Historical Materials
The Site is an archive assembled from historical web content. Publications may reflect the evidence, terminology, organizations, personnel, links, and policy environment that existed at the time of publication. Some practices or standards may have changed. Although reasonable efforts are made to preserve useful content and functioning links, the Site does not guarantee that every item is current, complete, error-free, or suitable for a particular setting.
Third-Party Content and Links
The Site may link to or embed material from universities, governments, international organizations, publishers, video platforms, and other independent services. A link does not necessarily constitute endorsement. Third parties control their own availability, accessibility, privacy, security, and terms. Review those terms before relying on or submitting information to an external service.
Intellectual Property
Unless a resource states otherwise, names, logos, page design, text, photographs, and downloadable works remain the property of their respective authors, institutions, funders, or licensors. Inclusion in this archive does not transfer ownership. Requests for republication, modification, translation, commercial use, or use of institutional marks should be directed to the relevant rights holder.
No Warranty
The Site and its materials are provided “as is†and “as available,†without warranties of accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, uninterrupted access, or a particular program or health outcome. You assume responsibility for evaluating a resource before applying it.
Limitation of Responsibility
To the extent permitted by applicable law, the Site’s maintainers and contributing organizations are not responsible for losses arising from reliance on archived information, interruption of access, third-party services, misuse of tools, or decisions made without appropriate professional review. Nothing in these terms excludes responsibilities that cannot legally be excluded.
Changes and Contact
These terms may be updated as the archive, hosting environment, or available services change. Continued use after an update means that the revised terms apply. For questions about a specific publication, permission, or resource, use the guidance on the Contact Us page.