Why is Water so Important during COVID-19?

“It all comes back to water being the fundamental element, that is the carrier. We need to be more careful with the water we use, and the purity and the quality of that water.”

By Stuart Rudick, on Dec. 23, 2020

Improving water, sanitation, and hygiene has the potential to prevent at least 9.1% of the global disease burden and 6.3% of all deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).Why is access to safe water so important during COVID19?

COVID is a global health issue. It's also a key economic issue. People in the developing world have less resources, and less availability to clean, safe drinking water as it relates to COVID19, and the necessity for water sanitation and hygiene.

There's over 2.5 billion people on the planet, mostly women and girls, and primarily in the developing world, that do not have access to a sink to wash their hands and keep their hands clean from germs, which as we all know is a fundamental safety factor for COVID. They also don't have a place to go to the bathroom to defecate. And once again, they have the virus and germs spread in unsanitary places of defecation, which is a significant factor that can affect the spreading of germs and diseases.

So when we look at sanitation and hygiene, and we look at the developing world, there's an enormous need and opportunity for us to enable people in the developing world to have access to clean water for washing their hands. And then for sanitation, there's a number of solutions, and companies and technologies that we are investing in, working with and supporting, that have the solutions that are available today. They are effective, they are viable, and they are affordable. It's really just a question of time and money; so for us to be able to have the funds to be able to support these companies and help them accelerate their scaling of their business, and even more development of their technologies in their innovations, so we can even improve the existing technologies that exist. So that's, as I'm saying, more in the developing world.

What about the developed world?

Let’s just use the US as an example. We all know that almost everybody has a sink to use to wash their hands, and most people have been told that it's important to do and many people today are beginning to use some type of cleanser or germicide on their hands so they don't spread it and that's vital, fundamental, and important. But in America in particular, we have lower income communities, mostly, that are populated by minorities, that don't have even these facilities and services, just to have running water in their homes. Without that, of course, they can't wash their hands, and they can't keep themselves safe. So it's not just a third world issue. Water is connected to COVID. It’s definitely a first world issue and it’s happening right here, in our backyard.

COVID19 disrupted our society and economy but also highlighted the importance of water utilities and their role in providing healthy, safe, reliable water. What is the problem with today's water infrastructure?

This is a great question. When we look at water in the United States, it is a very, very established industry. And I'll say fairly old in the sense that when water systems were set up in our country, they were set up with much smaller population bases, without an understanding or expectation the population was going to grow dramatically. So the demands on delivering water to many, many more homes, and more businesses, has significantly impacted the ability to provide water to businesses and homes from a quantitative standpoint.

But now we're talking about the qualitative standpoint. So there's a question of what is the water that is being delivered to people. When we look at the qualitative side of water, most of the laws and regulations for water first were initiated in the Clean Water Act, which was in the early 70s. And there have not been significant updates to the Clean Water Act and the requirements of water purification, which is now almost 50 years old. And what's happened over the last 50 years though is that there's been a significant change in our environment and the pollutants that are in our environment, and therefore, that are in our water.

As we all know, plastic, as an example, wasn't a big issue, wasn't a great concern in the 70s. And today it's an epidemic of heavy plastic and everything. It's in all of our water. It's influencing our bodies and it’s in even what's now known as plastic rain. Like we had acid rain in the 70s and 80s, we now have plastic rain that's raining down plastic and nanoparticles everywhere in the world around the globe Even in places like Antarctica and Greenland, they have found plastic and even in the bodies of polar bears and seals. So, it's also in our water supply. And there are not specific legislation and mandates for treatment, and to have the removal of microplastics, as well as many other new toxins that have come about that exists today that didn't exist 50 years ago.

Then you have the pharmaceutical problem with so many people that are taking pharmaceuticals every day. When they are expelling them in their waste, it's getting into the water supply and going right into our water districts and, unfortunately it's coming back and they're not being treated out for most water utility districts.

Glyphosate Roundup is another critical issue that is now in our drinking water pretty much all over America and there's no specific standards for treatment of that removal from our water.

Then the new thing that people are beginning to learn about are the health hazards of PFAS, and the endocrine disruptor, and the hormone disruptor that PFAS have, which is a product that came out of Teflon originally. There is likely going to be legislated mandates to begin to treat and remove that but there is not today so that's what's in our water table and our drinking water that we're all ingesting.

We've heard about Flint, Michigan, we've heard about Newark, and the lead, that is in water there. Well, there's probably another 25 to 30 communities, today, that have very similar problems that Flint and Newark had that just have not been disclosed yet.

So we really need to have a greater awareness of what's in our water, and we need to have government support and legislation that ensure that our water that we are drinking in our homes each day is being treated for these new types of chemicals, toxins, and harmful additives that are in our water that we had no idea and expectation was going to be in; but it is today and it needs to be cleaned up and treated.

What is the solution to today's aging water infrastructures? and how is WIA going to play a role in it?

In the last six months, startups and innovative companies started looking at how to detect COVID in earlier stages. There's one company in particular in Israel, named Kando, that we are working with and considering for investment; and we are advising them to help them bring forth their technology. They have a water device; there's a piece of equipment that goes into the storm drains and sewer drains of cities and it's placed in there. It has sensory equipment, and then has software applications that read back and report what's in the water from a qualitative standpoint. While they originally were focused more on metals and harmful chemicals, they've now been able to improve their level of detection and sophistication to be able to detect viruses, and COVID is one of those. So as I said, they are based in Israel but they are working in the US, and they are in early stages of working with water utilities, particularly in Northern California, where they can put their system, their hardware, and their software into the storm drains. They can locate in very precise manner, less than like a third of a mile of where the COVID is in the system. They can track that and show the quantities, the frequency, and all the metrics of COVID that existed exactly where it is. That could be a very significant way to be able to help prevent more of the spread of COVID.

What should we do after COVID?

COVID is a virus and we all are beginning to understand so much more than we ever thought we'd want to learn about viruses. What we're beginning to understand is that COVID is here and COVID was an evolution of SARS. So it's just a question of what's next. Because this virus will mutate and evolve; and we've already seen, just in the last few days, that there is a new COVID virus that's in the UK and maybe in the US. So we're going to really need to be vigilant about what is happening; our lives, all over the globe; and become much more careful of germs and the spreading of germs which is all done through water and water droplets. And so it all comes back to water being the fundamental element, that is the carrier. We need to be more careful with the water we use, and the purity and the quality of that water.