Advocacy and ground realities of handwashing

Washing hands with soap and clean water is proven to be the easiest and most cost-effective health intervention against viral and bacterial diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded the global community of its importance in saving human lives from critical virus infection. The Global Handwashing Day, observed on this day, therefore, has special significance this year. This advocacy day for raising awareness on the importance of handwashing to prevent disease and save lives is guided by the proverbial saying – prevention is better than cure. The facemask and hand hygiene will remain the simplest and affordable protection against COVID-19 till vaccine is discovered by the scientific community to fight the pandemic.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in United States describes handwashing to be a "do-it-yourself" vaccine to reduce spread of germs. The Assam Health and Family Welfare Department has claimed that the flattening of the pandemic curve in the state has begun but sounds a caution. The curve may peak again if people stop observing the COVID safety protocol during the festival, it warns. State Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has also been emphasizing that washing hands with soap and clean water is equally effective and much affordable than hand sanitiser and therefore availability and affordability of pharmaceutical sanitisers should not cause any anxiety. The pandemic has brought a lesson that raising awareness on handwashing cannot be restricted to a single advocacy day. Rather this global advocacy day should be a reminder to the global community to make it an everyday advocacy among children, parents, teachers, community leaders and every section of the society. Availability of safe drinking water and affordable soap is a prerequisite for this advocacy to produce meaningful outcomes.

Expediting the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) of the State government of providing functional tap connections to 14 lakh rural households for supply 55 litres of safe water per capita per day will be critical to achieving the objectives of handwashing campaign. Inordinate delay in commissioning of water supply projects in Guwahati city and in different towns and urban centres make residents in urban localities grapple with severe water shortage. As on July 7, only 2.73 per cent of the total 63.05 lakh households in the state have functional tap connections. Handwashing has to be a family activity in order to ensure that it is also practised by the members at public places. The importance of handwashing to prevent spread of the COVID-19 infection should motivate the State government to initiate extra efforts to fast track JJM implementation. The City residents who are compelled to buy expensive water supplied by private water tankers prefer to buy hand sanitiser for hand hygiene than using purchased water for handwashing multiple times.

Most often getting supplies even by the private tankers in time is also difficult which limits their options. Non-availability of piped water supply facilities has compelled many households to dig borewell and use water pump to lift water from underground sources in unregulated manner. This has led to alarming depletion in ground water table in Guwahati with serious consequences. This has inflated their household budget and they fail to connect with the advocacy of handwashing to stay protected from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Ironically, water supply projects in the capital city have been hanging fire since 2009 while the world community has been observing the global handwashing day since 2008 when it was observed for the first time during the annual water week at Stockholm. The day is an initiative of the Global Handwashing Partnership (GHP), a coalition of multilateral government and non-government agencies, private sector entities, academic institutions which promote handwashing with soap and integrate handwashing programmes, provide policy support and scientific knowledge and evidence on effectiveness on handwashing. "The COVID-19 pandemic provides a stark reminder that one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of a virus is also one of the simplest: hand hygiene, especially through handwashing with soap. To beat the virus today and ensure better health outcomes beyond the pandemic, handwashing with soap must be a priority now and in the future. This year's theme, Hand Hygiene for All, calls for all of society to achieve universal hand hygiene," says GHP.

The disconnect between advocacy and ground realities have reduced the observation of the Global Handwashing Day into an annual event of public relations in many places in the state. The advocacy, therefore, should also focus on the issue of availability of clean and safe water in all households and at all public places so that handwashing do not remain a mere slogan and can truly be practised by everyone in the society. The prevailing pandemic situation should inspire path-breaking initiative to innovate ideas on judicious use of available water for achieving the objective of handwashing.