As the world continues to grapple with how to contain highly-transmissible variants of COVID-19, focus on the fundamental importance of handwashing to prevent the spread of disease has become widespread. But from families to frontline healthcare workers, billions of people in low- and middle- income countries don’t have the resources to adequately wash their hands. A staggering 3 billion people across the world do not have access to reliable water and soap supplies. Consider how easy it is for viruses to spread throughout the world when the number one precaution, handwashing, is limited.
Healthcare Facilities:
With a scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE) in many parts of the world, WASH is one of the key lines of defense for millions of healthcare workers on the frontlines of care and containment. The inability to properly clean and disinfect hands makes infection prevention deeply challenging, if not nearly impossible.
Homes & Communities:
In the world’s crowded and impoverished cities, slums, and refugee camps, social distancing is difficult to achieve making the need for handwashing all the more dire.
Schools:
In schools, COVID-19 can silently spread among students and travel home with children and teachers. Improved WASH services can have a major effect on keeping children in school.
School attendance is a global priority. As the latest data from the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNICEF show, school closures at the peak of the pandemic disrupted education for 1.6 billion students.
Investments in WASH in response to COVID-19:
U.S. Agency for International Development
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), through its Water for the World programs, provides water and hygiene products and promotes the importance of handwashing in response to COVID-19. Since 2008, USAID’s water and sanitation assistance has resulted in 59.5 million people gaining access to sustainable drinking water and more than 44 million people gaining access to sustainable sanitation, globally.
Despite challenges brought on by COVID-19, USAID’s Water and Development Plan exceeded FY2020 targets ahead of projections:
USAID works around the globe to ensure inclusive and sustainable growth through whole-ecosystem water security strategies and locally-owned solutions.
Multilateral Organizations
“Handwashing is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, yet millions of people across the world lack access to a reliable, safe supply of water,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Investment in water, sanitation and hygiene must be a global priority if we are to end this pandemic and build more resilient health systems.”
Last updated March 2022
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