The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic could increase developing countries and development partners’ focus on water and WASH and trigger transformational change in some countries, according to a report commissioned by the United Kingdom government.

“Water security beyond Covid-19”, produced by The Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development Programme (K4D) for the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), synthesises recent expertise and thinking to relate that “As the Covid-19 pandemic is still unfolding, it is not clear what the impact on developing countries or their water security will be...Consequently, there is a need to monitor how the pandemic unfolds and assimilate lessons learned. Interventions to strengthen water security should focus on four key areas: adequate water availability, acceptable water quality, water resource management, and affordable access to WASH (Water, Sanitation and Health)”.

50-70 tonnes of fish have died in Wallonia, Belgium, blamed on contamination from a leak in a settling pond at a sugar beet refinery across the border in France.

Tereos, owners of the processing facility in France, admit a leak was found 10 April that led to a spill of wastewater into a tributary of the Scheldt River, but claims there is no proven link between the spill and a reduction in oxygen levels resulting in the fish kill. Belgian authorities have accused the French factory of being too slow in issuing a warning.

Citizens of Naryn in the cetral region of the Kyrgyz Republic will enjoy improved wastewater services thanks to a joint $7 Million USD investment by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Government of Switzerland and the European Union (EU) in the municipal water service infrastructure at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated the critical importance of high standards of hygiene and sanitation.

The Environment Minister of the Czech Republic, has called the combination of almost no snowfall and a warm winter, which has caused a 500-year drought, “catastrophic” for the country.

In a 29 April televised briefing to journalists, Jiri Brabec said "Currently, 80 percent of underground wells are in a state of mild to extreme drought, mainly due to the accumulation of the deficit in the last 6 years and extremely little snow in the past winter".

By 2030, up to 15 million people and $177 Billion USD in urban property will be affected by annual coastal flooding and an additional 132 million people and $535 Billion USD will be affected by riverine flooding, the World Resources Institute (WRI) reports (Aqueduct Floods Tool).

Floods are more intense as a consequence of climate change, development in high-risk zones, and land subsidence from the overuse of groundwater. Using its “Aqueduct Floods” tool, World Resources Institute calculates that by 2050, the numbers are predicted to be “catastrophic”, with a total of 221 million people at risk, with cities bearing the cost of approximately $1.7 Trillion USD annually. Developed in 2014 with consortium of data partners, including Deltares, Amsterdam’s Institute for Environmental Studies, Utrecht University, and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the tool also suggests that investment in flood protection infrastructure returns significant benefit. For instance, every $1 invested in flood protection infrastructure in India results in $248 in avoided damages and a 50 percent decrease in future risk.

 

Charlie Iceland, Director of water initiatives at WRI, told OOSKAnews that “even relatively modest efforts to increase flood protection levels could yield very significant benefits. For example, if Tanzania were to increase its riverine flood protection levels to guard against a 1-in-10-year flood instead of a smaller 1-in-5-year flood (the amount of flood protection we estimate they currently have), this would result in avoided impacts on $79 billion worth of GDP between now and 2100, avoided impacts to 74 million people, and benefits of about $20 for every $1 spent".

Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Greece and Northern Macedonia have approved a Strategic Action Plan (SAP) for sustainable management of the shared Drin River Basin, an important source for fishing, electricity, agriculture, tourism and drinking water in the countries. The project sets out more than 100 agreed actions to enable sustainable water management in the basin, benefiting 1.6 million inhabitants.

The SAP, approved in a “virtually signed” 24 April statement by Ministers and representatives, aims to address four particular cross-border issues among the Riparian nations - water pollution, biodiversity degradation and ecosystems, water flow and sediment disturbances.

Heavy rains that have caused major flooding in and around Lake Victoria over the past two weeks have affected fisheries, restaurants, shops, homes and livelihoods in in Kenya and Uganda, with widespread destruction and displacement. Experts and villagers claim this is the worst flooding since 1963. Local officials in Kenya have appealed to the national government for assistance in an effort to mitigate the problems and to forestall friction among fishing and pastoralist communities.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved $21.5 Million USD financing for water and wastewater infrastructure improvement in Buzau County, in southeastern Romania.

Bangladesh capital city Dhaka's water and sewage system is to benefit from development bank and government investment to improve supply and sanitation for an underserved, fast growing poulation.