The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic not only weakened economies and health systems, and resulted in human loss in the millions, but also widened existing gaps in realizing development targets on water security.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) Progress Assessment shows that Asia and the Pacific is off track on achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Among those is SDG-6, which targets the provision of universal access to safely and sustainably managed water and sanitation. Five of the six indicators for SDG6 that have credible estimates have barely reached the mid-point from the 2000 baseline.
The disease may not be water-borne, but proper handwashing is essential in preventing and controlling infection. COVID-19 has therefore also highlighted the importance of safe and adequate water services for hygiene, disinfection as well as for drinking.
Vulnerability in Asia and the Pacific
In Asia and the Pacific, the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water declined from 17.8% in 2000 to 6.3% in 2015. But water contamination and unequal access remain critical issues. During the same period, the proportion of people without access to safely managed sanitation declined from 48% to 35%, representing an additional 580 million people gaining access to safe sanitation. Regional disparities are still apparent with as many as 59% of people in South and South-West Asia still facing poor sanitation.
In a recent report, 22 out of the 49 developing member countries tracked for water security by the Asian Development Bank were found “insecure,” representing 2 billion people or about half of the region’s population.
Urban slums face their own particular water security challenges . For example, in India, an estimated 80% of the 7 million residents of Dharavi, Mumbai—the largest slum in Asia—have no running water. With inadequate distancing measures, long queues at communal taps present high transmission risk of COVID-19. In Pakistan, an estimated 34 million people who live in katchi abadis or urban informal settlements pay for tankered water at exorbitant prices, which leads households to scrimp on water use including for handwashing. Low-income households in Penjaringan, Jakarta, resort to buying water from their neighbors, which is 40–60 times more expensive than subsidized piped water supply. The financial burden of spending as much as 36% of household budget on water is aggravated by the logistical challenges of sourcing water during a pandemic.
The pandemic’s impact on the water sector has had significant gender implications. In many developing countries, women and girls are responsible for fetching water from communal sources or water vendors, potentially increasing their risk of COVID-19 exposure. Shared and poorly maintained sanitation facilities put women and girls at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 as they manage their menstrual hygiene needs.
Asia and the Pacific is also the most disaster-affected region in the world, home to more than 40% of the globe’s calamities and 84% of the people they affect. This adds another dimension to the region’s water insecurity since many water utilities and resource managers in the region have been faced with dual challenges of dealing with COVID-19 and disasters, such as super cyclones Amphan and Yaas that hit South Asia in 2020 and 2021.
Uncertainties facing water service providers
Many governments have intervened to ensure the continuity of critical water services during the pandemic, in some cases providing direct financial support to water service providers. In the absence of government relief, the financial losses from the pandemic are borne by water service providers. Revenue decline is the single biggest financial impact to water service providers. This is due to the sharp decrease in commercial and industrial water consumption that may not be fully offset by the increase in household consumption. Even with increased household consumption, some utilities have been unable to collect payments from residential customers in part due to customer relief efforts. Prolonged uncertainty over how service providers will be compensated for losses incurred due to the pandemic—either through government transfers or increased customer tariffs—may lead to reduced capital and maintenance spending, as well as significant changes to operating and maintenance planning, in the future.
As long as the pandemic persists, full financial recovery (i.e., returning to pre-pandemic levels of financial health) for many service providers may not be possible. The resumption of some economic activities has partially increased water demand and revenues for service providers, but many are still operating at a loss.
Post-pandemic era
The post-pandemic recovery of the water sector will require a strong focus on preventing and responding to future health crises, and acceleration of universal access to water and sanitation.
In particular, governments and service providers must provide greater sanitation access. There are 369 million people in Asia and the Pacific without access to basic sanitation services, and the sanitation burden is borne disproportionately by the poor and vulnerable. Designing safe, inclusive, sustainable, culturally sensitive, and resilient sanitation services present an investment opportunity not only for governments but also for the private sector.
Conventional sewerage implemented by wastewater service providers is not only costly, but also impractical in many instances. Citywide Inclusive Sanitation is an urban sanitation concept that ensures everyone has access to safely managed sanitation by embedding a range of services—both onsite and sewered, centralized, or decentralized—tailored for the realities of the world’s burgeoning cities.
The water sector after the pandemic must have a thorough understanding of the vulnerabilities and risks facing all of its stakeholders, systems, and resources. Service providers must identify and assess the risks faced by marginalized and vulnerable groups within their ambit of service, and the risks to their resources – physical and human. This will help them manage their resources and understand the possible ways for extending critical services to presently unserved groups or areas, to prepare for more effective and efficient crisis response and management.
Extension of water supply services to the entire population and sustainable management of water resources entail employing both established and innovative approaches, including decentralization and digitalization. There are technologies that work more efficiently and are cheaper at low-scale applications. This is in contrast to the large economies of scale that water service providers and resources managers are typically configured for; in this way, decentralization offers the potential for equitable service provision, provides redundancy in the systems, and helps speed up the implementation of suitable water supply and sanitation services and localized water resource management.
Achieving resilience
Water services and resource management must be designed for sustainability and long-term resilience. Water is the primary medium through which we will feel the effects of climate change. The pronounced impacts of climate change on the water cycle also alter the operating parameters for many service providers and water resource managers in terms of supply and quality. Legacy systems are already at risk of failing to meet the demands of countries that experience rapid climate change such as Nepal and in the Pacific region. This does not bode well for developing countries that are intensifying investments in inflexible infrastructure, such as large multipurpose dams.
The pandemic also showed the need for water managers to be digitalized. Innovative technologies are available at affordable costs, that increase efficiency and bring resilience to both service providers and communities. Remote monitoring of quantity and quality of water, digitalized billing, and early warning systems to handle disasters, are a few examples. Adoption of technology has been slow in the water sector, despite evidence of its success across a wide range of applications. Demystifying the technology and demonstrating that users can choose the speed at which they implement it is key to its adoption.
Nature-based solutions (NBS) can support long-term sustainability by providing flexibility and adaptability to water service providers and managers. For example, China’s “sponge city” design approach—a suite of integrated NBS and “green and blue” infrastructures that aim to enhance urban water management in major cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, and Shenzhen—is envisioned to improve water retention (to avoid flooding and increase local water supply) and water quality (for reduced pollution and potential decentralized water sources). As rapid urbanization and population growth sweeps across Asia and the Pacific, service providers must consider NBS and green design as components of healthy, livable, and resilient cities, in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic and beyond.
Toward a new normal for water sector
The postpandemic “new normal” of the water sector will require a strong focus on preventing and responding to future health crises, accelerating universal access to water and sanitation, and adopting digital technologies.
The “new normal” of the water sector must include a thorough understanding of the risks faced by vulnerable groups in society. Service providers must identify and assess the risks faced by marginalized and vulnerable groups. This will help them understand the possible ways for extending critical services to presently unserved groups or areas, as well as prepare for more effective and efficient crisis response and management. Achieving this will not only help prepare for any new pandemic, but will be key to tackling the bigger climate change challenge ahead.