COVID-19, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Disaster Risk Reduction. Where are the links?

The strong interaction between health and disaster risk reduction has been made explicit by the current pandemic crisis. COVID-19, drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and disaster risk reduction are closely linked: First, the exposure to COVID-19 may be minimized substantially through availability and access to safe drinking water and sanitation infrastructure, and healthy hygiene behaviours. Second, natural disasters such as tropical cyclones, flooding or droughts may have detrimental effects on health-promoting WASH infrastructure, leading to overflow of sewers, or lack of water for handwashing, thus increasing the risk of infection. And third, COVID-19 and related government measures and contact restrictions may change distribution of resources and reduce preparation to disaster risk and monitoring of disaster risk reduction efforts. What we are learning as we are dealing with the impacts of COVID-19 can present an opportunity to manage – prepare for, mitigate and reduce – the risks of natural disasters, i.e. extreme weather events.
Case study areas will be selected together with students based on comparable datasets of water points, WASH in households, schools and healthcare facilities from 14 low- and middle-income countries (mainly East, Southern and West Africa).
This project includes three separate, but connected topics*, for three students to work in parallel on
1. COVID-19 and WASH;
2. WASH and natural disasters/vulnerability to disasters/disaster risk reduction;
3. Natural disasters/vulnerability to disasters/disaster risk reduction and COVID-19.
*Please indicate your preference.