aRTICLE | Analysing The New Normal
Handwashing Benefits are Huge, But It’s Tough to Change People’s Habits To increase handwashing and address Asia and the Pacific’s hygiene and health challenges, new skills, creative thinking, and the use of behavioural change research are all needed. One of our most powerful weapons for fighting disease is literally at our fingertips: the simple act of handwashing Christian Walder | Water Supply and Sanitation Specialist, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, ADB Bronwyn Powell | Water and Development Specialist
ashing hands alone could decrease the incidence of diarrheal disease by anywhere between 23 per cent and 40 per cent, by one estimate. And as we have all learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, proper hand hygiene is essential for the prevention and control of all types of infection. Then why don’t people just wash their hands? It’s not that simple. In 2020, 30 per cent of the population in Central and Southern Asia and 64 per cent of the population in the Pacific did not have access to basic handwashing facilities—a dedicated place in the home where soap and water are available to wash their hands, according to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program. There are also worrying gaps in basic handwashing facilities in schools and healthcare establishments in the region. In Asian primary schools, for example, less than half of the students have access to basic handwashing facilities. Improving hand hygiene in schools is not only crucial for public
36 February 2022 | www.urbanupdate.in
health, but is linked to other benefits, such as reduced absenteeism. But even providing the facilities is not enough. Out of the 78 per cent of the global population with access to a handwashing facility at home, researchers found that only 19 per cent wash their hands with soap after contact with feces. In other words, even when people have access to handwashing facilities, they still do not practice proper hand hygiene at critical times. Professionals working in water supply, sanitation, and urban development are increasingly realising that investing in water supply and sanitation systems alone is not enough to bring about health improvements. A central question is what can be done to influence and to sustain people’s handwashing? While the COVID-19 has likely brought an increase in the practice of handwashing, will people go back to their normal practices when the fear of the pandemic is no longer a motivating factor? Water and sanitation infrastructure must be accompanied by hygiene initiatives as well as environmental and verbal cues to promote the desired
