The World Health Organization invited HEKS to contribute to the session “Supporting resilient communities through WASH and energy services in healthcare” at the World Water Week on 27th August 2021. Shahid Kamal, Regional Humanitarian Aid Coordinator Asia at HEKS, shared his experiences from the island sub district of Kutubdia in the south of Bangladesh.
WASH, Risk Mitigation and Environmentally Friendly Energy Solutions in Remote Health Care Facilities
The five health care facilities that HEKS supports on the Kutubdia island in Bangladesh had neither electricity nor a basic water service prior to the project. The existing shallow tube wells were saline and had only seasonal water. HEKS supported a deep tube well (300m) with a solar pump and additional solar panels and batteries to provide lighting for safer childbirth at night. To help the community face an increase in extreme flooding and rising sea levels, HEKS raises access roads and plinths for the infrastructure of the health care facilities, such as waste management zones.
Check out the short presentation of Shahid Kamal at the World Water Week here:
About the Session
Roughly, one in four health care facilities globally lack basic water services and one in three lack hand hygiene at points of care. Similar gaps exist for energy services. WASH and energy are fundamental for safe health care and play an important role in mitigating both the COVID-19 and climate crises. To address this major challenge, WHO, UNICEF and partners are working to support countries in strengthening policies, monitoring and implementation. In addition, a Global Taskforce on WASH in health care facilities has been established to accelerate investments and improvements through two workstreams focusing on advocacy and country progress.
At the event, the latest global and country progress was presented to improve climate resilient WASH and energy services. Short case study presentations were complemented by interactive debates on the way forward in streamlining and strengthening the shared agenda of climate, energy and WASH in health care facilities.
The full session recording is available with a World Water Week login here: https://worldwaterweek.us2.pathable.com/meetings/virtual/6DkDvKQDjfuSv6cDR
