The water sector has an important role to play in our immediate response to COVID-19 as well as in the recovery and rebuilding phases as the world readjusts to a range of legacy impacts from the pandemic. This role spans and incorporates the breadth and depth of the various domains and disciplines of water resources management. COVID-19 is shining a light on the weak points in the approaches, tools and systems that we have built, or are attempting to build, in striving to achieve equitable and sustainable management of our water resources around the world.
The strength of water, the uniqueness of water, is that it is connected to and embedded within most of the goods and services that we rely on as individuals, communities, countries and regions. COVID-19 is testing the strength of these interconnections and interdependencies and is revealing just how important water is in addressing the health, food, transport, environmental and economic crises that are unfolding before us. A recognition that water is an essential service will enhance our ability to respond, recover and rebuild a post-COVID-19 world and provides an opportunity for us to rethink and reprioritise our interests, ambitions and resources. [Continue Reading…]
Find out more about what the Australian Water Partnership is offering through related
activities, news and industry resources below
COVID-19 Water Security Risk Index
Launched 21 August 2020: Read the media release
Australia is supporting COVID-19 preparedness, response and recovery activities across the Indo-Pacific to secure our region’s health, wellbeing and stability in these challenging times. In support of the Australian Government’s Partnerships for Recovery policy, we have supported the development of the COVID-19 Water Security Risk Index (developed by the Griffith University’s International WaterCentre and the School of Medicine). The Index builds upon the ADB’s Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO) approach, which is partly funded by AWP, as well as public health risk frameworks and indicators. It considers factors that influence a country’s vulnerability to respond to COVID-19 risks from a water security perspective.
Access the Index | Download the report: PDF (1.6mb) – Word (362kb) – Excel (162kb) | Video: How to navigate the Index
Download country-specific briefs: 
Timor-Leste (2.4mb) | 
Solomon Islands (895kb)
‘Australian Telewater Network’ for International Development
PROVIDING AUSTRALIAN WATER SECTOR EXPERTISE REMOTELY TO SUPPORT INDO-PACIFIC DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
The Australian Telewater Network® is a web-based initiative aimed at providing effective and increased access to Australian water resources advice, knowledge and tools in developing countries that will assist in their preparedness, response and recovery from COVID-19.
The approaches and lessons in managing COVID-19 risks by Australian water utilities are in high demand by their twin utilities in Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and more broadly across the Indo-Pacific region. In response to this demand, Telewater is being piloted in Indonesia and the Pacific region with a focus on supporting the water utility sector.
Access the Telewater network hubs below, which are being implemented by the Australian Water Association in Indonesia and the Pacific Water and Wastewater Association, with HunterH2O, in the Pacific.
Telewater: Southeast Asia
Led by the AWA
Telewater: Pacific
Led by the PWWA and Hunter H2O
Related AWP news
Related industry resources
Strategic Approaches to Water Management:
- COVID-19 and Peace and Security [global]
- COP and COVID-19 [global]
- Stretching the international order to its breaking point [global]
- Will Covid-19 force India to face up to its water crisis? [India]
- Asian Development Outlook report – special part on COVID [Indo-Pacific]
- When COVID-19, climate collide: How south Asia can prepare itself [Indo-Pacific]
- A tale of two emergencies [global]
- COVID-19: the role of the Water Convention and the Protocol on Water and Health
Gender Equality and Social Inclusion:
- CARE Rapid Gender Analysis COVID-19 Pacific Region [Pacific]
- COVID-19 amplifies water security inequalities
- Coronavirus and human rights: New UN report calls for disability-inclusive recovery
- COVID-19 & Disability Inclusion
- Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse during COVID-19 response
- ICRC: COVID-19 Inclusive programming for marginalized and at-risk people
Water Tools:
River Basin Planning:
- ICIMOD’s work and the COVID-19 crisis [HKH region]
- Ayeyarwady Delta Rapid Market Assessment: Impacts of COVID-19 on smallholder farmers and food systems [Myanmar]
Environmental Water:
Integrated Urban Water Management:
- Why the COVID crisis is an urban crisis [Pakistan]
- What we learn about the Corona virus through waste water research [global]
- How sewage could reveal true scale of coronavirus outbreak [global]
- Urban Water Poverty and the Disproportionate Distribution of COVID-19 Risks in South Asia
Irrigation and Agriculture:
- IWMI and Covid-19
- FAO and Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)
- Integrated agriculture water management and health
- ACIAR | Food systems security, resilience and emerging risks in the Indo-Pacific in the context of COVID-19
Sustainable Development Goals:
Capacity Development: