Without access to clean running water, stopping the spread of COVID-19 is near impossible. What’s more, scientists have discovered the new variants of COVID, including one that originated in Brazil, are even more infectious than the first one that started the pandemic.

According to UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, 29% of people across the globe don’t have access to clean water at home*, denying them a basic human right. Handwashing is the simplest and most effective method of protecting yourself and your loved ones from COVID-19. With this in mind, #TOGETHERBAND and Harpic are leading a coalition of partners to build water and hygiene stations for the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Our work kicked off last year in Brazil, where so far we’ve installed five water stations, providing families with long-term access to running water and helping change lives in the process. We partnered with UN Global Compact Brazil who advised us on where our water stations would have the most impact, in a country which has already seen over 200,000 deaths from COVID-19, making it one of the worst affected places in the world.

One of the areas identified as most at risk was the city of Belo Horizonte in the South-east of Brazil where we installed our first water station in December, a permanent solution plumbed into the mains water supply. Here one in 20 people don’t have access to drinking water and 2150 homes don’t have a bathroom.

‘This water station is very important to our community,’ one resident Paula Silva, a community co-leader and mother, told us afterwards. ‘This is a place with no regular access to water, so this water station at the entrance of the community is extremely helpful. It helps a lot in protecting our health during a time of coronavirus. Thank you, you are helping to save many lives.’

Carlo Pereira, Executive Director of UN Global Compact, emphasised that during the COVID crisis our water stations play a vital role in terms of health education. ‘They will raise awareness among adults, but mainly among children, of the importance of good hygiene and handwashing to prevent germs and diseases, but now with a focus on the pandemic. With your donations we hope to install more water and hygiene stations.’

Continuing our global activation of UN Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, next we’re also shining a spotlight on Mexico, a country where over half the population doesn’t have access to clean water at home* according to the World Health Organisation and UNICEF. It’s no coincidence that without safe water to drink, let alone for washing hands, Mexico is another of the countries worst affected by COVID.

*According to figures we’ve interpreted on ‘safely managed water’ from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF.