Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Hand Washing Process and Water Consumption

Authors: Kaywan Othman Ahmed¹ & Shuokr Qarani Aziz² & Dara Muhammad Hawez³ & Zhir Latif Sabir^4
1Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tishk International University, Sulaimani, Iraq
²Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Salahaddin University, Erbil, Iraq
³Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Koya University, Koya, Iraq
⁴Independent Researcher

Abstract: World Health Organization suggested many ways to protect from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), such as maintaining a safe distance from others, wearing a mask, avoiding touching eyes, nose, or mouth, staying at home, cleaning/washing hands often, and using soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub. Thus, water and alcohol-based handwashing were frequently used since the pandemic. Therefore, this research aimed to compare the amount of water used before and during COVID-19. Similarly, using the alcohol-based cleaning will be evaluated during the COVID-19 and before that. Several questions were prepared and sent to the participants using technology. This study found that the number of handwashing and the duration of the washing hand increased by 85.34% and 101.92% respectively, which means water used for handwashing was doubled after the spread of the coronavirus. Correspondingly, clean and sanitizers like gel and alcohol were used more as well.

Keywords: COVID-19, Detergents, Disinfectants, Handwashing, Sanitizers, Water Consumption

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doi: 10.23918/eajse.v7i1p228

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