Annual Report Canada 2020/2021

It’s certainly been another difficult and unpredictable year for everyone. As we reflect on the unique challenges of 2020/21, namely COVID-19 and the climate crisis, we are so very grateful for the resilience, passion, and drive of the WaterAid Canada team. Despite the unprecedented circumstances of this past year, we remained steadfast in our mission to transform lives through access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

The continued reality of the pandemic prompted us to maintain our efforts to scale-up clean water and hygiene projects as vulnerable communities struggled to protect themselves against the virus. In doing so, we continued to prioritize the health and safety of our colleagues, as new waves of COVID-19 and lockdown measures rolled out across the globe.

As COVID-19 limited travel, gatherings, and community engagement, we resorted to creative and innovative ways of reaching communities in rural areas as well as busy urban centers. Innovations like mobile handwashing stations, soap making workshops, educational posters, sophisticated social media campaigns, and travelling loudspeakers helped us promote the uptake of good hygiene behaviours and frequent handwashing to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten our global community, the work to bring clean water, decent sanitation, and good hygiene to everyone, everywhere has never been more critical. Worldwide, 2.3 billion people live without reliable access to basic handwashing facilities with soap and water, putting them at greater risk of falling ill with the virus. In the past year, we’ve quickly responded to COVID-19, recognizing the dynamic nature of transmission and the diverse needs of the countries where we work.

Over the past year, we have worked with our country teams to protect some of the most vulnerable populations in the areas where we work. This includes installing handwashing facilities and ensuring access to essentials like soap, water, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant in healthcare facilities, hard-to-reach rural communities, and heavy-traffic public areas. And, our mass public hygiene behaviour change campaigns disseminated through digital, social, and mass media channels, have served to promote the proper use of these facilities.

To ensure the long-term sustainability of our projects, WaterAid has always worked closely with local and national governments. Throughout the pandemic, we added to our advocacy efforts by assisting local and national governments with coordinating their WASH-related responses to the pandemic, while identifying the groups most at-risk in their country. Additionally, we worked with WASH service providers at all levels to limit service distributions of these key resources in fighting COVID-19. Simultaneously we campaigned for governments and donors to prioritize and fund full WASH service coverage for everyone, especially the most vulnerable.

HerWASH is a four-year project being implemented in Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Pakistan in partnership with the Government of Canada to provide quality, gender-responsive, and age-appropriate menstrual health and hygiene education in vulnerable communities. The project aims to: a) create the necessary conditions for girls to stay in school throughout menstruation and promote their bodily integrity; b) support women and girls to participate in their daily life while menstruating without discrimination; c) help to advance gender equality and female empowerment by improving access to sanitation infrastructure that meets the needs of girls and women during menstruation; and, d) debunking cultural taboos and misconceptions surrounding menstruation.

In the past year, we’ve reached thousands of women, girls, men, and boys with improved WASH infrastructure, training, and education in schools, workplaces, markets, and other community spaces. Training and education have a proven impact on increased levels of confidence in women and girls in talking openly about their menstrual needs; while providing men and boys with a better understanding of menstrual health and hygiene (MHH). Improved WASH infrastructure means that those who menstruate can attend to their needs, such as cleaning reusable menstrual clothes, disposing of pads and tampons, and washing their hands with soap and water in privacy.

At the Mobai Chiefdom Healthcare Facility in Sierra Leone we have already engaged staff in MHH training. One such recipient of the training is a nurse named Mary, 28, who has worked for the healthcare facility for almost a decade.

From a young age, Mary was taught that menstruation was something to be ashamed of and was discouraged from talking openly about it with her family or friends. As a result, she was never properly educated on MHH, and unintentionally became pregnant shortly after experiencing her first period due to this lack of knowledge.

When Mary became a nurse, she thought she would receive training on MHH – but to her dismay, the topic was as stigmatized at her nursing school as it had been in her childhood home. She knew this wasn’t right, and she wanted to learn more about the subject so she could educate adolescent girls in her community.

Around the world we’re seeing clear evidence that our climate is changing. Floods, droughts, heatwaves, and forest fires have all become more frequent and extreme in recent years. This is making life harder for people who already struggle to get clean water.

One of the ways we can mitigate the effects of climate change is with a reliable source of water that keeps running through floods, droughts, and other natural disasters. We’re working side-by-side with some of the world’s poorest communities to establish environmentally sustainable water infrastructure to help them get a steady supply of clean water year-round.

In flood-prone regions, we provide flood-resistant waterpoints and pipe networks to ensure people always have access to clean and safe drinking water. In drought-prone regions, we help people learn how to accurately monitor and manage water supplies to ensure a community’s basic needs can be met during the dry season. We also work with governments to make sure access to clean water is at the heart of their climate adaptation and development plans.

Given its low elevation and poor infrastructure, Bangladesh is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Extreme weather events like floods and cyclones have become increasingly common in recent years due to changing climate patterns, leading to the destruction of essential infrastructure and the contamination of clean water sources. This is putting millions of people at risk of displacement and illness, like Parul, pictured above, who lives along the Kapotakkho River in Khulna, Bandgladesh.

Parul and her family used to have a clean water source close to her home, but a series of cyclones and flooding contaminated it, making it unsafe to drink. As a result, she and her family were forced to travel long distances – close to 3 km every day – just to find clean water. Parul and her husband, Saraf, were both left with less time to earn an income, and the couple’s daughter, Khushi, often had to miss school to help collect water.