Posts tagged Water

COVID-19 bans hit women’s access to water in Pacific Islands

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 03.05.2022 (SciDev.Net): COVID-19-related restrictions have further exposed inequalities in people’s access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the Pacific Island countries, especially among women, experts say.

Women and girls have a larger role relative to men in WASH activities, including in agriculture and domestic labour. Ninety per cent of the total population in the Pacific have access to an improved drinking water source, but this rate is significantly lower in rural areas. Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu host 81 per cent of the population without access to improved sanitation, according to the CARE Rapid Gender Analysis COVID-19 Pacific Region 2020 report.

“Women and girls feel the impacts first when it comes to lack of access to clean water and hygiene facilities. The impact of climate change, ongoing disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic will increasingly test the resilience of sanitation systems and the availability of safe water owing to floods, droughts and extreme weather patterns, impacting vulnerable communities in our Pacific communities,” says Shirleen Ali, Pacific senior gender and inclusion adviser for CARE International.

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Post-pandemic Asia Pacific lags on climate SDG – UN

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 25.03.2022 (SciDev.Net): The Asia Pacific region has significantly regressed on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to climate action and responsible consumption and production, moving the region further away from the 2030 goalpost, according to a UN report.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (ESCAP) 2022 Asia-Pacific SDG Progress Report, launched on 17 March, notes that inequality in the region has widened due to impacts of COVID-19, climate change and human-made crises. It says vulnerable groups, including women, rural populations, poorer households and people with severe disabilities, have been disadvantaged the most as a result.

“The sole focus on economic recovery post-pandemic is likely to hinder progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, which was already lagging to begin with,” Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP’s executive secretary, tells SciDev.Net. “As the region strives to build back better and recover, the 2030 Agenda can serve as a guiding mechanism for both economic and social development”.

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