‘Ensure sufficient clean water for hand wash’

Kathmandu / April 20 : Social distancing and frequent hand-washing are highly recommended as the effective measures against the spread of COVID-19. But, experts stress that sufficient clean water is needed to wash hands to be safe from the infection.

Taking part in a video conference organised by the Smart Solution Pvt Ltd, they emphasized the availability of pure and sufficient water to wash hand. They advised the government to be equally careful for the prevention and control of infectious diseases likely to be spread during summer.

The experts sought the attention of stakeholders concerned towards the supply of clean water to people’s households, quarantine facilities, in public places and other required areas.

Though, people have got the message that regular hand-washing with soap and the use of hand sanitiser are the effective measures to be safe from the virus, water is in short supply. Water tanks placed in public places are empty, and quarantine centers do not have a sufficient number of toilets, soap and running water facilities, according to them.

They expressed concerns over the compositions of hand sanitiser lately appeared in the market. As they said, ethanol alcohol -based sanitiser can kill the virus from 60 to 90 percent and mixture of isopropyl alcohol in it would give better results, but this knowledge seems lacking in the production of hand sanitiser in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

Former secretary engineer Suman Sharma, Kathmandu University teacher Subodh Sharma, director general at the Department of Water Supply and Drinking Water and Sewerage, Sunil Kumar Das; organising commitee chair engineer Ramdeep Shah, Water Aid’s Anil Thaman, former Minister Deepak Gyawali, former Science, Technology and Environment Minister Ganesh Shah, researchers from the drinking water and sanitation sector, policymakers from the related field, journalists, and government and non government representatives took part in the conference.

The participants spoke the need of strengthening local levels and local users’ committees to deal with the water crisis issue. They were univocal that water crisis was not only the issue of urban areas, but it was the problem of rural areas and it was really challenging to address issue when the country was struggling to combat the pandemic.RSS