As regular hand washing is a key tool in combating COVID-19, the UN and its partners are taking steps to ensure people living in informal settlements have access to running water at this critical time, according to the agency working to achieve more sustainable cities.
UN-Habitat said the impacts of the new coronavirus disease could be considerably higher on the urban poor living in slums, where overcrowding also makes it difficult to follow other recommended measures such as social distancing and self-isolation.
UN-Habitat is based in Nairobi, home to the Kibera slum, where people live hand-to-mouth and water access points are hard to find. They are even harder to get to when movement restrictions are in place, in the hope of preventing further spread of the disease.
As resident Anna Nyokabi put it: “We don’t have enough water to drink and cook our food, so where will we get water to wash our hands frequently?”
More than two billion affected
If the international community is to beat back COVID-19, then Governments must provide Ms. Nyobaki – and the more than two billion people worldwide like her – with continuous access to sufficient water.
That’s the opinion of 10 independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.