W.A.S.H. in the Age of COVID-19
Back in May, a report came out that circulated the news world wide; the headlines read “Peru has world’s worst per capita Covid toll after death data revised.”
However, BBC reported that Peru instated one of the earliest and strictest lockdowns of all Latin America, even before the UK and other European countries back in March 2020. But with these restrictions in place, the question that comes to mind must be, “Why has Peru been hit so badly?”
Most reports today cite Peru’s grossly underprepared healthcare system and a lack of funding to provide the necessary care to its population. Additionally, even throughout lockdowns, the Peruvian people were forced to take incredibly frequent trips to the store to buy foods, thus having high rates of transmission even during lockdown; this is because, according to a 2020 government survey, more than 40% of households do not have any means of home refrigeration.
A large part of Peru’s inability to “stop the spread” is interconnected with the country's lack of proper Water and Sanitation Hygiene (W.A.S.H.) practices. The CDC has guidelines for the frequency of best hand-washing practices, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has added additional guidelines, suggesting a necessity for handwashing after touching your eyes, nose, mouth, or mask; entering and leaving a public place; and touching an item or surface frequently touched by others. Additionally, the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition published guidelines for patients recovering at home which cite drinking water as the first and foremost “Key Weapon in the Fight Against COVID-19.” Obviously, these are incredibly helpful guides to fighting the Coronavirus Pandemic, but for those in rural Peru, these guidelines are extremely difficult to follow because of the lack of proper water and sanitation services.
Even in the largest, most affluent part of Peru, the country’s capital, 1.5 million citizens of the Greater Lima area lack running water, according to an article by the Borgen Project. Imagine once you get out to a rural community in the middle of the desert - the luxury of running water all but vanishes from households. Water is an expensive commodity in a country like Peru: even with millions of dollars spent each year to develop the proper infrastructure, a vast majority of the Peruvian people are underserved. Rural Peruvians mainly source their drinking and cooking water from the same canals and rivers they bathe and wash clothes in, often miles and miles away from their main residence. Even once they get this water, often they’re ignorant of proper water sanitation practices, especially those stricter recommendations developed to combat the pandemic.
Imagine your entire community is sick with the coronavirus: not only has the need for water been heightened so significantly, but so has your fever, and you fear your body might not make it all the way to the canal and all the way back lugging enough water to provide for the entirety of your sick family in Peru’s desert heat. What do you do to provide hydration for your sick children?
These are the tough questions parents and peoples are faced with daily in Peru. With almost 200,000 people having died from the Coronavirus, hopefully Peru’s experienced the worst already, but this pandemic is far from over. With the Lamba variant plaguing the streets of Peru, a strain recently deemed a Variant of Interest by the World Health Organization due to genetic changes that may affect transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, diagnosi,s or therapy, now more than ever, Peru needs our prayers and aid.
With your help Vera Aqua Vera Vita can help close the gap the COVID-19 pandemic has only widened. Be a champion for change today; help support our mission to put the global water crisis in the history books and provide the life-giving water that has kept so many safe and healthy during this pandemic! See how through Our Work in Peru we are striving to combat their Water Crisis and see specific stories of those we serve.
