Calls for improved health and water risk management following COVID-19
Improved and increasingly integrated risk management structures are needed to combat health and water-related disasters following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to experts at the International Online Conference to Address Water-related Disasters under COVID-19.
At the conference, leaders from the Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Tokyo-based National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), and the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) highlighted the importance of WASH services as the frontline against the spread of disease. The lack of WASH infrastructure across the world is a primary concern for health and water-related risk management in the future.
ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa highlighted this: “Unfortunately, the hygiene needed to combat disease is a challenge for the 300 million people in Asia and the Pacific who lack access to a safe water supply, and the 1.2 billion who lack access to safe sanitation.” The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the impact of this lack of sanitation infrastructure - addressing this should be a priority for future outbreaks.
In response, HELP has developed the Principles to Address Water-related DRR under the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Principles highlight practical advice to a range of actors and stakeholders on how to prepare and respond to avoid magnified impacts due to co-occurring disasters.
Find out more here: https://www.adb.org/news/experts-call-stronger-risk-management-health-and-water-disasters-wake-covid-19-pandemic
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