Handwashing with soap : A concern for overuse of water amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh

• Handwashing is one of the vital public health measures. It helps to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, water overuse during hand scrubbing with soap keeping the tap on may put enormous pressure on the already overstretched groundwater resources and households’ economic well-being. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the overuse of water while scrubbing hands with soap for handwashing when the tap is on amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Sociodemographic data were collected using a web-based survey tool among 1980 participants and an experiment was conducted among 126 participants to estimate the overuse of water during hand scrubbing while the tap is on. A total of 80% of the participants washed their hands regularly after returning home from outside. About 57.3% of participants did not turn off their tap throughout the handwashing process. A single participant, who kept his tap on throughout the handwashing process, overused approximately 1.7 L of water per handwash and 14.9 L of water per day. Hand scrubbing with soap keeping the tap on, raised the overuse of water 13-fold during this pandemic compared to the non-pandemic situation which cost an extra 225.0 BDT (2.7$) per day for 1980 participants. Minimize the speed of tap, using automatic taps, and using taps operated by legs might be an effective solution to reduce the water overuse. Furthermore, behavioral change interventions are needed to aware people turn off the tap during hand scrubbing with soap.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Bangladesh

COVID-19

Hand scrubbing

Handwashing

Overuse of water

Groundwater

Groundwater resources

Behavioral changes

Effective solution

Health measures

Sociodemographic data

Turn offs

Web-based surveys

Well being

Surveys

disease control

disease spread

epidemic

hygiene

public health

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)