Exploring challenges in safe water availability and accessibility in preventing COVID-19 in refugee settlements

The first global overview of basic water and sanitation indicators in refugee camps is presented (using data from 2003-2006) and compared with selected health and nutrition indicators. This demonstrates that average levels of water and sanitation provision are acceptable at camp level but many refugee operations are suffering from gaps that cross-cut these sectors; e.g. typically poor sanitation provision is corresponding with low per capita availability of water. These findings were confirmed at household level with two household surveys undertaken in African refugee camps; households reporting a case of diarrhoea within the previous 24 hours collect on average 26% less water than those not reporting any cases. In addition, typically higher levels of morbidity of one infectious agent are also reflected across other infectious agents; this is reinforced by comparing the relationship between morbidity and nutrition status from selected camps. The importance that hygiene, environmental conditions and local settings have on health (both of refugees and also local communities) is underlined. Interventions to improve indicators across the water, sanitation, health and nutrition sectors rely not only on increased and sustained resources but must entail an integrated approach to simultaneously tackle short-comings across all these vital sectors.

Worldwide, 844 million people still lack access to basic drinking water, especially in the rural areas of low and middle income countries. However, considerable progress has been made in recent years due to work on the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals. Nevertheless, countries’ national characteristics have often impacted on this progress. This paper analyzes whether specific socioeconomic factors affect access to improved water sources in the rural areas of developing countries. In particular, we analyze access to ‘total improved’, piped on premises, as well as other improved sources of access in rural areas for low income, low-middle income, and high-middle income countries. Our results suggest that gross national income (GNI); female primary completion rate; agriculture; growth of rural population; and governance indicators, such as political stability, control of corruption, or regulatory quality are variables related to water access, although specific associations depend on the source of water and income group examined. Understanding these interrelations could be of great importance for decision makers in the water sector as well as for future research on this topic.

Background Safe water is essential for life but unsafe for human consumption if it is contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. An acceptable quality of water supply (adequate, safe and accessible) must be ensured to all human beings for a healthy life. Methods We collected and analyzed a total of 12,650 drinking water samples, for the presence of Escherichia coli and faecal coliforms, from a large habitation of the displaced Rohingya population comprising of about 1.16 million people living within 4 km2. Results We found that 28% (n = 893) water samples derived from tubewells were contaminated with faecal coliforms and 10.5% (n = 333) were contaminated with E. coli; also, 73.96% (n = 4644) samples from stored household sources (at point of use—POU) were found contaminated with faecal coliforms while 34.7% (n = 2179) were contaminated with E. coli. It was observed that a higher percentage of POU samples fall in the highest risk category than that of their corresponding sources. Conclusions From our findings, it appears that secondary contamination could be a function of very high population density and could possibly occur during collection, transportation, and storage of water due to lack of knowledge of personal and domestic hygiene. Hence, awareness campaign is necessary, and the contaminated sources should be replaced. Further, the POU water should be treated by a suitable method.