Published on October 2020 | Environmental Health, SDG, Climate Change

Prioritizing Water-Demanding Situation, Climate Change in Covid19

Hand washing on regular basis is strongly recommended to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which requires access to adequate, secure, and affordable water in addition to that required for making food, hydration, and normal sanitation. Universal and equitable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene is a major public health issue and the focus of Sustainable Development Goal 6. However, over 50% of the global population lacks connectivity to necessary sanitation, and 75% of households in low-income and middle-income countries are not able to wash with soap and water [1]. Furthermore, its importance, water infrastructure is substantially underfunded, particularly in ordinary settings such as slums, rural areas, and refugee camps, where access to adequate water is deteriorating due to acceleration of climate change. Without access to safe water, COVID-19 could to disproportionately affect individuals living in these settings. Humanitarian campaigners have called for free supply of hygiene-free water and prevention measures for the COVID-19 pandemic [2]. However, this movement clashes in certain parts of the world with an exceedingly inadequate water source. In addition to sustained periods of dramatically decreased precipitation in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central America, the climatic changing led to numerous unparalleled major weather in 2019, putting tremendous water stress on affected areas, including broadly floods in South East Asia, the driest year of record for Australia and Cyclone Idai on the eastern coast of Africa [3]. The climate and COVID-19 crises are global and unprecedented in their level of disruption, and require coordinated responses by policy-makers, businesses, and broader society. But they are also different. The pandemic directly threatens individuals and health systems, whereas climate change undermines broader natural and human systems. COVID-19 requires responses within days and weeks, whereas reactions to the climate crisis appear less acute. Nevertheless, science suggests that climate impacts will worsen the longer we wait. So, we are faced with overlapping crises that require immediate societal mobilization. Yet, as nations marshall massive resources to mitigate the economic and social impacts of This shows how intertwined modern economic life and fossil fuels have become and suggests consideration of climate implications in economic recovery plans. However, there is variation in political responses to COVID-19. Overshadowing conditions that facilitate disease spread, 800 million people must drive over 30 minutes to reach clean water [4] half of whom are resident in informal environments and have a chance additionally of COVID-19. Improved water forecasting and water quality surveillance and resource control are urgently required to direct water infrastructure preparation in response to increased climate change. The distribution of water supplies needs to prioritize those at highest risk, including populations in informal environments, for COVID-19. Water management and climate action must also go hand in hand with attempts to increase access to water. In order for the resource to be effectively and equitably distributed, both in response to COVID-19 and in the direction of sustainable water conservation and access for those most in need, it is urgent for industry and the decision makers to participate. In order to improve public health services and protect the health of populations immediate action is required to identify the crucial relation between environment and COVID-19. Water and climate are central to meeting 'Global priorities of sustainable development, climate change and devastating risk reductions' [5].