Covid-19 and Water in Asia and the Pacific: Guidance Note

By Asian Development Bank

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had a wide-ranging and substantial impact on the water sector in Asia and the Pacific. This guidance note focuses on how service providers—particular those involved in supply, sanitation, and wastewater treatment—have been affected and the response measures they have undertaken. It also identifies potential pathways to shape a post-pandemic recovery for the sector and the role of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in supporting this. The guidance note is one of a series produced by ADB for key sectors and thematic areas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Release date: Jul 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9789292629496

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COVID-19 AND WATER IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

GUIDANCE NOTE

JULY 2021

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO)

© 2021 Asian Development Bank

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Some rights reserved. Published in 2021.

ISBN 978-92-9262-948-9 (print); 978-92-9262-949-6 (electronic); 978-92-9262-950-2 (ebook)

Publication Stock No. TIM210265

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/TIM210265

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent.

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Notes:

In this publication, $ refers to United States dollars.

ADB recognizes Hong Kong as Hong Kong, China; and China as the People’s Republic of China.

On the cover: Water is essential to all living things, and there is a critical need to support the sector in Asia and the Pacific. ADB is committed to supporting recovery from the coronavirus disease pandemic and realizing the new normal by taking immediate actions and financing projects and programs, capacity building, and technology and innovation in the region’s water sector (photos by Nasrur Rahman, Afriadi Hikmal, Veejay Villafranca, and Gerhard Joren/ADB).

Cover design by Nonie Villanueva.

Contents

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Acknowledgments

COVID-19 and Water in Asia and the Pacific: Guidance Note was prepared by the Water Sector Group under the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department (SDCC) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). This is part of a series of ADB guidance notes produced in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Geoffrey Wilson, senior water resources specialist, SDCC, led the preparation of this guidance note, with valuable technical and survey analysis by Victor Arroyo, team leader; Joanna Burgess, deputy team leader; Christian Yang Villa, project manager, of Isle Utilities Pty Ltd.; Thomas Panella, former chief of the Water Sector Group; and Robert Guild, chief sector officer of SDCC, supervised the preparation of this guidance note.

The team is also grateful for perspectives provided by members of the Water Sector Group, notably Coral Fernandez Illescas, Jelle Beekma, Christian Walder, Jacob Veerman, and Pia Corrina Romero Reyes.

The team also appreciates the support of ADB operations departments, especially the sector division focals for their valuable advice and support throughout the process, including Alan Baird, Alex Conroy, Akira Matsunaga, Eric Quincieu, Hisaka Kimura, Jie Bai, Kiyoshi Nakamitsu, Lu Shen, Momoko Nitta, Pedro De Almeida, Qi Ji, Suzanne Marsh, Vivian Castro-Wooldridge, Yaozhou Zhou, and Xueliang Cai. The team is also grateful to ADB consultant Ricardo De Guzman for his input to the survey preparation.

Abbreviations

Executive Summary

This guidance note provides a comprehensive look at the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on the water sector from March to December 2020, the actions