wash service affordability
The aim of the group is to discuss the utility’s needs, guides, experiences, good practices, lessons learned and technologies used to provide water and sanitation services sustainably to affected, at-risk, low-capacity and fragile populations. Keeping availability, affordability and secure access to WASH services in health facilities, schools, households and communities.
A COVID-19 Bridge Over Troubled Water?
It seems likely that the COVID-19 crisis will increase demand for cleaner, safer water and more reliable and effective wastewater treatment everywhere. This could accelerate progress toward the SDG on water and wastewater. But success is far from guaranteed, not least because the pandemic also seems to be strengthening another trend: declining trust in public institutions. Changing this will require water utilities all over the world to improve their management and communication practices significantly.
Boosting local climate resilience and economic opportunity in the COVID-19 era
The pandemic’s effect on people has also highlighted the continued vulnerabilities and inequities in our built environment amid a changing climate. As utilities, transit agencies, and other infrastructure operators see dips in revenue and adjust short- and long-term plans, COVID-19 is only adding more salt to a wound that has festered for decades: inaccessible, unaffordable, and fragile infrastructure that has failed to support a clean, safe environment for millions of households. And unfortunately, it usually takes a disaster to raise our collective consciousness of this challenge.