East African countries have been asked to prioritize hand washing for all to fight preventable diseases such as diarrhea and respiratory infections that are of late associated with the COVID 19 pandemic.

 This follows findings from a report from the World Health Organization and UNICEF, released on Global Handwashing day, which shows that giving everyone in the world’s poorest countries access to hand washing aids like soap and water, would cost around $11 billion.

The above findings, according to Olutayo Bankole-Bolawole, the Regional Director of WaterAid East Africa, shows that progress on the part of governments to increase handwashing facilities is too low.

According to Bolawole, for everyone to be able to wash their hands at home by 2030, as per the Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs) governments need to make progress at least four times faster than they currently are.

“Investing in water, sanitation and hygiene brings multiple wins for governments, it is value for money, helps achieve health targets and increases productivity to support economic growth,” said Bolawole.

He added “if governments invested in even basic water, hygiene and toilets it would bring a return on investment of up to 21 times the cost,”

Bolawole further explained that the provision of basic water services could save women and girls the equivalent of 77 million working days per year that they currently spend on fetching water, increasing their life and work options hence contributing towards gender equality.

Besides, good hygiene can reduce diarrhea and respiratory diseases at low cost, improving people’s health, reducing the costs of healthcare and freeing up people’s productive time.

His remarks were reechoed by UNICEF, which is also urging governments to commit to providing hand hygiene, not as a temporary response to the pandemic, but as an investment in public health and economic resilience.

 The latest joint UNICEF and WHO report further identified five accelerators that can enable governments to rapidly scale up access to hand hygiene, which include good governance, smart public finance, capacity building, consistent data, and innovation among others.

According to the Water and Environment Sector Performance Sector Report 2020, in Uganda, access to handwashing with soap household level is at 38% in rural areas in the last financial year, following a 2% increase from 36% the previous year. While coverage in urban areas increased to 61.1% from 40% during the same period

The report adds that handwashing with soap coverage is highest in Northern region, followed by West Nile, Central, Western, Eastern, and lowest in the Karamoja sub-region