Workers at a ready-made garment factory wash hands having learned about importance of handwashing through hygiene behaviour training. Narayanganj, Bangladesh, 2020. Credit: WaterAid/Drik/Parvez Ahmad

By Ruth Romer
LONDON, May 22 2020 (IPS)

As COVID-19 lockdown restrictions across the globe start to be relaxed, the collective conversation has shifted towards plans for a ‘new normal.’

With the IMF predicting a three percent dive to global GDP in 2020, the biggest economic downturn in almost a century, global corporations are considering what this means for them, and how they can safely re-establish their suspended operations.

Regular handwashing with soap and physical distancing are vital to prevent the spread of infection and should form the foundation of any plan to resume work.

Yet in the world’s poorest countries, which are home to millions of workers employed in apparel and agricultural supply chains, implementing these measures will be a huge challenge.

Unavoidable physical proximity coupled with a lack of soap and water for workers to wash their hands – and even a lack of knowledge about when they should be doing so – mean that the threat posed to business by the pandemic is far from over.

Many of these countries have fragile economies, which make implementing COVID-19 resilient water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) solutions even more challenging.

The ILO has called for employment policies to predominantly focus on important employment and income protection mechanisms in an attempt to prevent vulnerability to poverty.

An improvement to labour standards must also include progressive and equally prioritised action with regards to the health and hygiene of workers. If access to clean water and good hygiene facilities are not considered, not only will millions of lives be at risk, but businesses will face significant challenges in re-establishing operations.

Global supply chains will only survive if businesses take action when it comes to hygiene – the health of tea pickers, farmers, artisans, and textile producers and other supply chain workers in the global south, underpin the success of businesses in a post COVID-19 world.

With one in ten people globally lacking clean water at home and one in four having no decent toilets, it’s vital not only to consider not only the factory and field, but beyond the operational fence line, to the communities where workers live, to reinforce workplace resilience.

Workers at a ready-made garment factory wash hands having learned about importance of handwashing through hygiene behaviour training. Narayanganj, Bangladesh, 2020. Credit: WaterAid/Drik/Parvez Ahmad

WaterAid has longstanding relationships with a number of apparel factories in Bangladesh, where we have worked with partners to provide water, sanitation and hygiene access to workers, and on intensive hygiene behaviour change campaigns for both those employed in the factories, and the surrounding communities.

Since the pandemic outbreak, we installed additional handwashing facilities and delivered a COVID-19 specific hygiene campaign reaching more than 20,000 workers within one week. We continue to work closely with factory management to enable their safe return to operation post lockdown.

Action on water, sanitation and hygiene has the potential to safeguard companies against operational, reputational, regulatory and financial risk in the short-term response to COVID-19 and build the foundation for vital long-term resilience against future shocks.

For companies with global supply chains who have experienced immense logistical and financial disruption, the intersection between workforce health and economic prosperity has been made abundantly clear.

Globally, it is estimated that every dollar invested in clean water, good hygiene and decent toilets returns $5.50 in increased productivity.

As a partner of global governments in their fight against COVID-19, WaterAid has a global footprint and four decades of expertise within the sector and is offering to develop bespoke guidance, tailored to businesses who approach them.

WaterAid has launched its guidance Prioritising hygiene for workforce health and business resilience and is inviting companies to work with them to bring sustainable changes within their supply chains that will improve resilience and productivity.

To discuss water, sanitation and hygiene management strategy and bespoke materials tailored to your company, contact corporate@wateraid.org.

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Credit: WaterAid/ James Kiyimba

By Ruth Romer
LONDON, Nov 12 2019 (IPS)

Water underpins the global economy and agriculture is by far the world’s largest water consumer, accounting for 70% of freshwater withdrawals. Global water demands are projected to increase by 55% by 2050 and climate change will present further pressures on water accessibility.

Many agricultural supply chains, from the smallholder to large commercial farms, originate in countries where large proportions of the population have no access to safely managed water and sanitation services, such as in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and this presents various social and environmental challenges.

Companies reliant upon the agricultural supply chain have a significant role to play in the management of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as well as a stake in ensuring supply chain security.

A new booklet ‘Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Three Essential Ingredients to Resilient Agricultural Supply Chains’ launches this week at the annual Alliance for Water Stewardship forum.

Co-authored by Alliance for Water Stewardship, Diageo, UN CEO Water Mandate, WaterAid and WASH4Work, it highlights why and how companies that rely on agricultural supply chains should invest in WASH management.

Having reliable access to these basic services would not only improve the health and welfare of the workers; it can support a resilient business whilst helping mitigate against the impacts of climate change.

Why do companies with an agricultural supply chain need to invest in WASH?

Access to adequate WASH services remains critical at every stage in agricultural supply chains. The following physical, financial, reputational and regulatory risks and opportunities need to be managed within an environmental and social lens to ensure long-term economic benefits:

• Physical

• – Projections show that more than 40% of people will live in areas of severe water stress by 2050. Together with declining water quality issues, this will exacerbate the challenges of water availability for households and crops. The lack of decent sanitation for agricultural workers can also have a detrimental effect on the quality of local water resources.

• Financial – At the macro-economic scale, it is estimated that every US $1 invested in WASH generates US$ 4.30 through increased productivity. In collaboration with partners, WaterAid is driving more work on the micro-economic business return on investment.

• Reputation – Responsible water management and adequate access to WASH for workers and surrounding communities not only benefits the health and dignity of staff and farmers, but also stakeholder relations. Companies with a good reputation can reap business benefits.

• Regulation and compliance –The United Nations mandates clean water and decent sanitation as a basic human right – and it is a state’s obligation and a company’s responsibility to respect human rights. Internal corporate policy or HR policy, which incorporates WASH elements or global targets, can also help drive internal compliance and alignment with business as usual practices.

How can companies prioritise WASH?

For many companies, the environmentally focused elements associated with access to water to produce the raw material, as well as water-use efficiency and discharge in processing, are often prioritised over the social elements.

However, WASH can be a risk to social license to operate and production capabilities, so water security for business operations requires a more holistic approach.

WASH management should integrate considerations of not only the workers, but also the broader supply chain and the communities in which the workers live.

Once fully embedded within a company’s corporate water stewardship plan with clear corporate policy commitments or targets, the local level implementation can be easier, especially if there is top-down endorsement.

The Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard provides a useful framework for a company to consider WASH management issues at site-level.

The booklet does not intend to provide detailed site-level guidance; however, it provides a primer to build the case for action. It
highlights, alongside associated guidance, the following recommended steps:

• • Champion the integration of WASH into the company’s corporate water stewardship strategy.

• • Assess WASH needs at the local level to understand the shared potential water challenges, risks, impacts and opportunities.

• • Develop a local level WASH stewardship plan including targets.

• • Engage with a third-party provider to support practical action and implementation if in-house resources do not exist.

• Engage with global initiatives to learn from the experience of others.

One in ten people lack clean water while one in four have no decent toilet. While many companies have provided access to these basic services at their workplaces, the real opportunity lies across supply chains, particularly agricultural ones.

Only then can business truly support universal access to WASH as well as working towards sustainable and resilient supply chains.

Find out more at https://washmatters.wateraid.org/publications/water-sanitation-hygiene-resilient-agriculture-supply-chains.

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Credit: Abir Abdullah/WaterAid

By Ruth Romer
LONDON, Aug 27 2018 (IPS)

Tea picker Bina, 45 from Sylhet, Bangladesh, used to walk for an hour each day to collect water from a well, also using water from a nearby stream, which was contaminated. Bina and her children were often sick as a result; leading to missed work and a loss of income.

WaterAid worked with the owner of the tea estate to introduce clean water and toilets in the tea gardens and surrounding areas. The new pumps and latrines have transformed Bina’s life, and have benefitted the estate too. A tea garden manager said: “Waterborne diseases have reduced so we pay fewer sick days. Efficiency has increased.”

It is clear that access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) increases productivity and results in economic benefits. There are fewer illnesses and deaths due to diarrhoeal disease, time benefits as staff seek less healthcare, and greater productivity.

In macro-economic terms, it is estimated that every dollar invested in sanitation returns US$5.5 in benefits and every dollar invested in drinking water supply returns US$2. Yet 844 million of people still don’t have access to this vital resource.
In macro-economic terms, it is estimated that every dollar invested in sanitation returns US$5.5 in benefits and every dollar invested in drinking water supply returns US$2. Yet 844 million of people still don’t have access to this vital resource.

Business must be part of the solution to the global WASH crisis; no one organisation or sector will be able to tackle it alone.

The global challenge and the role of business

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 is clean water and sanitation for all by 2030, and currently, the world is on course to fail to reach this. Good governance and partnerships are vital for progress.

Globalised operations and supply chains mean businesses are often operating where the lack of access to WASH is most serious. In a report released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, water is posed as both a risk and an opportunity for businesses. And while it commends the 47 companies that have committed to providing access to clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene to their employees, it calls on more to get on board.

Some companies are starting to recognise there are business benefits from investing in WASH, which go beyond the moral commitments of companies to invest and contribute to the human rights, health and safety of workers like Bina in the tea gardens.

Making the business case for WASH

However, one key problem is there is not enough company-level data to build a compelling case for business action on WASH. There is a growing body of positive case studies, but the evidence remains largely anecdotal and unquantified. To drive action at the speed required to reach everyone everywhere by 2030, the sector needs more robust evidence showing the financial value.

In response, WaterAid has launched a new guide, which has been championed by Diageo, Gap Inc. and Unilever, and endorsed by the initiative WASH4Work. The guide will help companies provide evidence of the benefits and financial value, or return on investment, of their WASH programmes, and make the case for greater investment in it within the company and beyond. It provides an opportunity for progressive companies to lead and showcase the incentives for business investment on these basic facilities whilst catalysing action.

It also responds to the growing need for the evidence that improving access to clean water, good sanitation and hygiene should be more than a philanthropic measure or means to tick a corporate social responsibility box; it should be a core business priority.

Diageo, Gap Inc., Unilever and HSBC are already leading the charge and investing in WASH. Diageo is rolling out the guide in Ethiopia, HSBC in India and Bangladesh. Gap Inc. is exploring current opportunities to test the guide in its supply chain as is Unilever.

The new guide launched at World Water Week in Stockholm this August and calls for companies to use the guide – test it, learn from it and share your results with us. We will be developing a community of learning via WASH4Work and we will plan to compile the data and share a consolidated business case in due course.

For real change to be made, more companies need to scale up their WASH investments in the workplace, communities and in supply chains.  Sustainability is no longer a fringe ‘green’ issue.

It has moved from the corporate margins into the mainstream, and it’s time for SDG thinking to be absorbed into business-as-usual. As far as citizens are concerned, waiting isn’t an option – nor is leaving SDGs for others to achieve.

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