We are all being told that the best way to keep coronavirus at bay is washing hands with soap and water several times a day; authorities need to quickly come up with solutions for the large number of Indians who do not have access to enough clean water. Ambika Vishwanath unty, tera saboon slow hai kya?” (“Bunty, is your soap slow?”), is the catch phrase of a popular TV ad. It shows a group of schoolchildren in a summer camp being instructed to wash their hands. Through it all, the tap is left running. Bunty vigorously scrubs his hands, claiming his mother says we must wash our hands for a minimum of one minute to be germ-free. His friend comes up and informs Bunty teasingly that it only requires 10 seconds with the advertised brand of soap. This popular messaging about hand washing in India typically ranges between 10 seconds for a ‘fast’ soap and a minute for a ‘slow’ soap. Considering the ongoing pandemic brought about by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), one of the easiest ways to protect oneself is by maintaining the highest standards of hygiene. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has advised 20 seconds as the ideal time for washing hands, to be done regularly several times a day. It seems rather obvious. All of us wash our hands. In this age of the Covid-19 epidemic, while people are avoiding handshakes, touching surfaces is unavoidable. And, when you set out to think about everything we touch, the number of times you want to then sanitise your hands or wash them with soap and water increases exponentially. The Indian market, as many others globally, has already seen a spike in the demand for hand-sanitisers, almost swept clean from retail stores in major cities, forcing more people in both urban and rural areas to depend on soap and water, to have a fighting chance to ward off Covid-19. But in a water-stressed country such as India, with such lopsided messaging about hand washing, which focuses more on soaps than on efficient water-use behaviour, there is a great risk that we will run out of stocks of clean water before stocks of ‘fast’ or ‘slow’ soaps. Taps are likely to be kept open
“B
Environment & people
12
April 2020
