Assessment of household water consumption during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional web-based study in India

Abstract

The fatal novel COVID-19 creates precarious threats to humans through speedy diffusion. This virus not only disrupts human health but also makes multidirectional loss and slowdown of modern earth. Almost all countries strictly imposed lockdown and social distancing norms to prevent the infection of COVID-19 virus. In almost all parts of the world, people are using more water for washing, cleaning, bathing and hand washing practices. As a result, per capita water demand along with expenditure have been significantly increased. The principal objective of this study is to evaluate the household level water consumption status and to improve the water security with management for future. The current study has been conducted among the general population of India to assess household level water consumption through internet E-Surveys Google form from August 18 to September 8, 2020. Around 1850 respondents have sent their comments from different sites (rural and urban areas in various climatic regions) of Indian subcontinent. The results show the tremendous increase of water usage along with electrical consumption and expenditure during COVID-19 pandemic situation. Our results revels that 10%, 15% and 17% of higher water consumption per day in rural, urban and peri-urban residential respectively. We hypothesize that the reasons for the increasing water demand and household consumption per day may be found in changed behavioral routines through bathing, washing clothes, and hand washing practices. This web-based study also suggests that few alternative and dependable management techniques i.e. rain water harvesting can be installed to fight the crisis and for the sustainable future. Subsequently, research and development are highly required for long-term management of water resources or reuse of water.

The Effect of Publicly Available COVID-19 Information on the Functioning of Society, Businesses, Government and Local Institutions: A Case Study from Poland

“…The results of a study conducted in India [53] show an increase of several per cent in water consumption along with electricity consumption and expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors of this study indicate an increase in the frequency of daily hand washing from 6 to 11-16 depending on the region and degree of urbanization.…”

Design and implementation of a Social Distance Vest for Covid19 prevention (SODIV-COP)

“…The introduction of Floor markers was another approach, where markers were pasted on the floor indicating where a person must stand in order to observe social distance [ 13 ]. These were implemented in banks, offices and other institutions and it was easy to abide by them.…”

“…The study in Ref. [ 13 ] main goals were to assess household-level water usage trends and enhance water security with management for the future but did not look into other alternatives curbing alternatives of covid19.…”

“…[ 11 ], stronger active monitoring of symptom development and transmission should be carried out in order to stop and contain the pandemic's subsequent waves. The Embedded Systems development is a technology that enables places and objects to produce various types of data for more actions and data analysis [ 13 ]. The usage of wearable technology in medicine is growing to solve more problems not only in health and help in abiding by the laws and prevention measures of COVID19 disease, hence the virus is still being transmitted, increasing the number of cases, leading to multiple deaths.…”

Understanding the role of groundwater in the lives of rural women in India

“…Although pregnant women and postpartum women are vulnerable, they are still forced to fetch and transport water. Adams et al (2021) and Bera et al (2022) discussed the issue of gender and groundwater management and household water consumption for the situation of COVID-19. The situation of COVID-19 has a particularly devastating impact on women and girls in LICs where water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) insecurity is widely spread and closely entangled with poverty and other vulnerabilities because they bear a greater share of responsibilities for groundwater collection, sanitation, personal hygiene, and family well-being.…”