Infection prevention and control measures directed at households and institutions are instrumental to stopping the spread of the virus. All households should have a handwashing facility and easy, affordable access to basic hygiene products so that they can keep the home clean and disinfected. It is important to raise awareness of why people with symptoms should isolate themselves and why family members should avoid sharing towels, cups, and cutlery. In institutions, it is vital to secure uninterrupted access to water and sanitation services, with equipment for protection and prevention.

Many countries try to protect low-income households, for example by ensuring that customers are not cut off from water services for failure to pay their bills. There are encouraging attempts to ensure that even unconnected households get access to clean water. Still, the most vulnerable groups are often forgotten, including people living in institutions, people with disabilities, migrant workers, refugees, and the homeless. Rural areas must not be left behind. Everyone should be guaranteed a minimum amount of drinking water.

There are many ways to improve access to safe water and sanitation. Some countries are distributing hygiene and water purification kits to households and institutions or finding other ways to facilitate access to soap and disinfectants. Additional water points are also created for vulnerable populations, through water tanks and water trucks. Other countries prioritize the expansion of handwashing facilities in health clinics, schools, and public places.

Governments are encouraged to ensure that water and sanitation utilities can continue to function, despite the growing demands and the increased financial pressure caused by the current crisis. Water and sanitation utilities are often struggling to protect their workers when maintaining or expanding their services. Water utilities, small service providers and rural water community-based organizations need technical and financial assistance to continue operating in a safe and sustainable manner.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the most significant shocks to global WASH systems in modern history, and policy makers around the world have implemented a wide range of responses. These policies have had varying degrees of success, and a range of challenges. The coming climate crisis dramatically increases the risk of similar shocks in the future.

The provision of water, sanitation, and hygiene s a key preventative measure in reducing the spread of Covid-19, and handwashing has been at the forefront of many countries’ response. However, this response to Covid-19 has posed, and continues to pose, detrimental effects on services delivery and sustainability.

SIWI with the support of UNICEF developed a study that analyses, assesses, and discusses the socio-economic effects of the pandemic in relation to its impact on WASH systems and services. The assessment is structured around two different stages of the crisis:

• the immediate effects in the early stages of the pandemic, and
• the indirect secondary effects caused as the crisis evolves into new phases.

Over one year into the pandemic, many lessons have been learned on how to manage and deliver services for all in a challenging and complex context.

The sector is learning how to adapt and put in place a combination of time-limited and long-term measures that are capable of supporting more and better access to clean water and sanitation.

Despite some progress, much remains to be done. Often, response and recovery measures are not benefiting the vulnerable groups and are deepening the gap between served and underserved populations. In addition, with reduced access to WASH materials and equipment, ruptures in global and local supply chains, many service providers facing serious financial and cash-flow difficulties, and a shrinking fiscal space, WASH services in specific contexts are at grave risk of collapsing.

This will be further aggravated by weak governance, policies, and strategies; inadequate regulatory frameworks; and insufficient coordination mechanisms, which already plague the WASH sector.

Therefore, technical and financial support to service providers and regulators, together with capacity development, require urgent strengthening at all levels. In the short-term, the goal of WASH stakeholders is to ensure availability and continuity of services for all to alleviate the severity of the Covid-19 impacts and prioritize the most vulnerable populations. Looking forward, the aim is to enhance the WASH sector’s resilience to future shocks.