Approval Date: 2020

The provision of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and waste management is indispensable to protect all human beings amidst infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19. The maximized benefits of WASH services can work as the barriers to human-to-human disease transmission of the virus, thus lowering the pandemic's immediate impacts. This strategy will supplement the intervention areas for Risk Communication and Infection Prevention and Control of the Bangladesh National Preparedness and Response Plan (BNPRP) for COVID-19 This WASH strategy will address the immediate, interim, and long-term responses by the WASH sector in Bangladesh to the COVID-19 emergency. The overall objectives are to maximize the impact of WASH interventions as a barrier to the COVID-19 pandemic and to protect human health and well-being. This will be achieved by ensuring continuity and expanded accessibility of WASH services by fostering preventive hygiene behaviors.