COVID-19 and informal settlements - implications for water, sanitation and health in India and Indonesia

Priti Parikh; Yasmin Bou Karim; Jacob Paulose; Pam Factor-Litvak; Emily Nix; Dewi Nur Aisyah; Hemant Chaturvedi; Logan Manikam; Monica Lakhanpaul

doi:10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000011

COVID-19 and informal settlements - implications for water, sanitation and health in India and Indonesia

UCL Open Environ. 2020 Sep 7:2:e011. doi: 10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000011. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Priti Parikh¹, Yasmin Bou Karim², Jacob Paulose³, Pam Factor-Litvak⁴, Emily Nix³, Dewi Nur Aisyah⁵, Hemant Chaturvedi², Logan Manikam^{2

6}, Monica Lakhanpaul⁷

Affiliations

¹ University College London, Engineering for International Development Centre, Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, 2 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BT, UK.
² Aceso Global Health Consultants Ltd, London, UK.
³ University College London, Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, London, UK.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
⁵ Indonesia One Health University Network, Jakarta, Indonesia.
⁶ UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Healthcare, London, UK.
⁷ Population, Policy and Practice, University College London, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK.

Abstract

Informal settlements are home to over 1 billion people worldwide and are characterised by high population densities and poor environmental conditions. The authors identify the impact of COVID-19 on existing water and sanitation practices and potential pathways for the transmission of COVID-19 in informal settlements in India and Indonesia. In the short term, there is an urgent need for mobile and contactless hand washing, washing/bathing facilities and toilets. In the long term, COVID-19 provides an opportunity to invest in centralised water and sanitation networked solutions appropriate for high-density settings to integrate those settlements into cities and improve environmental conditions and health in these cities.

Keywords: COVID-19; India; Indonesia; WASH; infection pathways; informal settlements; policy and law; the environment; water.

Grants and funding

This study received no specific funding. The CHIP Consortium is core funded by Aceso Global Health Consultants Ltd, London, UK.