“Water, sanitation and hygiene are absolutely critical for resilient societies. Whether you are talking about resilience to diseases like Covid-19 or resilience to climate change. And for resilience, you need a strong sector and for good water decisions to be made”, says Virginia.
In the video below, she talks about the importance of water decisions taken in the WASH space that contribute to building climate resilience:
“These decisions can be difficult to take, especially when we don’t have reliable information or data. And this is often a reality for those in rural, underserved communities far from local government services”, she says. “One way around this is through community-based water resources management projects to help communities monitor groundwater and rainfall, which can improve local decision-making and build climate resilience”.
She encourages the WASH community to submit change journeys to the Water ChangeMaker Awards as a way of moving towards a more resilient future and to connect to a wider community of people taking similar bold steps and making similar decisions.
“The WASH sector can’t work on crises like climate change and Covid-19 alone. We need to work in collaboration with our colleagues in the wider water sector. So for us, joining with partners for the WaterChangemaker Awards is a fantastic opportunity to make progress together and help each other address common challenges”.
WaterAid is an international not-for-profit, determined to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. Only by tackling these three essentials in ways that last can people change their lives for good.