WASH during the COVID-19 pandemic (India)

The study aimed to determine the actions needed to provide holistic WASH support in prevention and emergency response to the current and future pandemics, by formulating a toolkit. The study established the importance of WASH services in response and prevention of the epidemics and pandemics in history. Further, taking the case of the city of Ahmedabad, stakeholder consultations were conducted to understand the response of city authorities to the challenges put forth by the pandemic. An ethnographic study was conducted through focus group discussions in four slums, which were identified on the basis of population, household density, access to WASH services and land status. The study highlighted the impact of preventive measures advocated for Covid-19 pandemic like frequent handwashing, social distancing, sanitization etc. and responses like lockdowns and movement restrictions, on people’s access to WASH services and their management. Different WASH responses to Covid-19 pandemic, undertaken by central government, different state governments and city authorities were studied to formulate a toolkit, which incorporated the recommendations to WASH challenges observed in the vulnerable slums of Ahmedabad, as a case city. The WASH toolkit developed in the study will enable the post pandemic cities to use WASH as a tool to move from recovery to resilience, to similar potential shocks in future.