COVID-19 Shows Why Protecting Water in Conflict Is Vital

May 6, 2020 | Mara Tignino and Tadesse Kebebew
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The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted normal livelihoods around the world and hammered home the centrality of water and water infrastructure for human existence. In conflict-affected communities with already meagre access to water, the pandemic poses unfathomable dangers.

Even in the face of a global pandemic, water resources and water infrastructure in conflict-affected areas are still being used as a weapon, subjected to interruptions or even deliberate attacks. Civilians in north-east Syria have faced supply interruptions after Turkish-backed groups took control of a water pumping station that supplies 460,000 people. For Yemen, the damage wrought to its water, sanitation and health infrastructure has already created an ongoing cholera epidemic and left it ill-equipped to face COVID-19. And, just last month, it was reported that an armed group in Libya cut off the main water pipeline to more than two million people in and around Tripoli.

As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation fittingly stressed, access to safe drinking water and sanitation is central to living a life in dignity and upholding human rights. In particular, the World Health Organisation recommended that the provision of water, sanitation, and health services (WASH) is essential to protecting human health during all infectious disease outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic.