Nearly a quarter of people in Pakistan and South Africa say they have been prevented from washing their hands during Covid-19 as water not available or too expensive, reports WaterAid poll
People in some of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19 have struggled to wash their hands during the pandemic finds a new survey from WaterAid and YouGov to mark Global Handwashing Day.
Nearly seven out of ten people (69%) in Pakistan report having faced difficulties with cleaning their hands as much as they’d like in one or more settings during the COVID-19 pandemic with over half of people (55%) in South Africa reporting the same. As the world waits for a vaccine, washing your hands with soap is one of the few available defences against the virus.
Nearly a quarter (23%) of people in Pakistan and South Africa have had difficulty washing or sanitising their hands as much as they’d like, because of either a lack of water availability or because clean water is too expensive (25% in Pakistan and 21% in South Africa).
WaterAid polled people in Pakistan - which has had 315,000 confirmed cases and over 6,500 deaths, South Africa – with 700,000 cases and 17,000 deaths which is by far the highest case load in Africa, the United States with nearly 8 million cases and 220,000 deaths, the world’s highest national toll and the United Kingdom which has had nearly 604,000 cases resulting in just under 43,000 deaths.¹ The poll marks Global Handwashing Day on 15 October.
It shows that whilst only 6% of people in the UK have had problems in washing their hands at home and even less experience barriers to doing so at work (5%), one third (33%) of low income Pakistanis have experienced barriers to washing their hands at home. Of those who experienced difficulties 7% said that water is too expensive and 28% say they do not have water available.
Throughout the four countries, most people are washing or sanitising their hands more frequently than they did before the pandemic (81% across all four countries) – although in Pakistan 12% say that they are washing their hands less or do not wash their hands – in the United States that figure is 4%.
Globally, 3 billion people are living without somewhere to wash their hands with clean water and soap at home. In low income countries three quarters of people don’t have anywhere to wash their hands with soap at home. According to WHO /UNICEF data one in four health centres globally lack these basic facilities on site, meaning doctors and nurses are unable to wash their hands leaving both them and their patients at risk.² In Pakistan 13% of people have faced difficulties in washing their hands at a healthcare facility. Without easy and universal access to clean water and soap at health centres, it is extremely difficult to prevent the spread of infections including viruses.
Despite the dire statistics, the importance of access to hygiene and clean water has been worryingly overlooked. According to Devex*, of the $20tn committed to the COVID-19 response so far, only around 0.02% has been invested in scaling up vital water, sanitation and hygiene services.
Governments have been quick to promote hand hygiene and handwashing, but without acknowledging that this is shockingly still impossible for the three billion people around the world who lack clean water and soap in their homes, and for millions of frontline health workers and their patients in clinics and hospitals.
The WaterAid polling provides an anecdotal snapshot of how difficult it can be for some people to protect themselves against the COVID-19 virus through handwashing. But one of the barriers in making sure that everyone has somewhere to wash their hands with soap is that in many countries there is not enough data to show gaps in coverage. Yet research shows that handwashing with soap is one of the lowest cost and most effective health interventions against a variety of diseases.
Tim Wainwright, CEO, WaterAid, said:
“This pandemic has left us feeling scared about how to protect ourselves and our families from the virus. Handwashing with soap helps to slow the spread of the virus and reduce impact on healthcare services.
“WaterAid has worked hard during the pandemic to bring handwashing facilities to communities that would otherwise struggle to stay hygienic – so for example in slum areas and in market places, where other measures like social distancing are also a challenge. We are calling on governments to use this moment to urgently scale up investment in clean water, soap, somewhere to wash hands and the knowledge of how and why to do so, prioritising healthcare facilities and vulnerable communities.
“No pandemic preparedness plan is worthy of the name without clean water, sanitation and hygiene at the core.”
Today WaterAid also announces the winner of the Art of Change competition which saw artists from 44 countries produce inspiring artwork on the theme of water and hygiene. The winner, chosen by the public, is ‘Clean water saves lives’ created by Holly Thomas from London. Holly’s powerful piece of art will now be presented to the leaders of governments, together with a letter of support, urging them to make sure everyone has water and hygiene to defend themselves and their communities against disease including COVID-19.
WaterAid is calling for urgent, large scale investment in handwashing facilities – focusing on healthcare facilities, schools and public places to protect against the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
That investment should be guided by a five-point action plan:
- Invest in national data capacity to identify gaps in service provision, especially for the most vulnerable and marginalised groups and geographies;
- Prioritise handwashing infrastructure and WASH services to underserved communities e.g. urban settlements, where other COVID prevention measures such as physical distancing are not possible;
- Scale up adequate provision of the water supply, sanitation and waste water management needed alongside mass installation of handwashing facilities;
- Maintain and fund sustained nation-wide behaviour change campaigns integrated in government health and education programmes;
- Support and finance global partnerships like Hand Hygiene for All to catalyse the political commitment, coordination and private sector supply chain innovation supporting the delivery of credible national plans.
*Devex interactive tracker of money committed to the Covid-19 response
Definition of Low income here defined as: South Africa – income less than R60.000, Pakistan – income less than Rs20,000, United Kingdom – income less than £25,000; United States – income less than $30,000. WaterAid requested that data collected by YouGov be grouped into Low, Medium and High income groups.
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Notes to Editors
WaterAid
WaterAid is working to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. The international not-for-profit organisation works in 28 countries to change the lives of the poorest and most marginalised people. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 26.4 million people with clean water and 26.3 million people with decent toilets. For more information, visit www.wateraid.org/uk, follow @WaterAid or @WaterAidPress on Twitter, or find WaterAid UK on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wateraid.
- 785 million people in the world – one in ten – do not have clean water close to home.[1]
- 2 billion people in the world – almost one in four – do not have a decent toilet of their own.[2]
- Around 310,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That's almost 800 children a day, or one child every two minutes.[3]
- Every £1 invested in water and toilets returns an average of £4 in increased productivity.[4]
- Just £15 can provide one person with clean water.[5]
[1] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG Baselines
[2] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG Baselines
[3] Prüss-Ustün et al. (2014) and The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2018)
[4] World Health organization (2012) Global costs and benefits of drinking-water supply and sanitation interventions to reach the MDG target and universal coverage
[5] www.wateraid.org
