Social distancing and frequent hand-washing are highly recommended as 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.

During a video conference organised by Smart Solution, 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 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 centres do not have a sufficient number of toilets, soap and running water facilities, according to them.

They also expressed concerns over the compositions of hand sanitiser lately appeared in the market. Ethanol alcohol-based sanitiser can kill anywhere between 60 and 90 percent of virus, and mixture of isopropyl alcohol in it would give better results, the experts say, but many manufacturers were not following the procedure in the production of hand sanitiser in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

Former secretary engineer Suman Sharma; Kathmandu University professor Subodh Sharma; Director General at the Department of Water Supply and Drinking Water and Sewerage Sunil Kumar Das; chairman of the organising committee engineer Ramdeep Shah; Water Aid’s Anil Thaman; former ministers Deepak Gyawali and Ganesh Shah, were among the participants in the conference.

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

RSS

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