People without running water face unique challenges in their efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus at the center of the COVID-19 outbreak. One of the main recommendations to reduce spreading the virus is to wash your hands often. That’s a lot harder to do if you haul your own water.
Residents of rural Alaska without indoor plumbing tend to ration water so they don’t have to haul as much. They also often use a communal washbasin to clean their hands. Brian Lefferts, Director of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, says that reusing water to wash your hands can be a problem.
“If you have germs and this virus on your hands, and you wash your hands in the washbasin, you don’t want the next person who comes and washes their hands in that water to pick up the virus,” Lefferts said.
The solution is to add a little bit of bleach to the basin water to kill the virus and other germs.
“One teaspoon of bleach for a half gallon of water,” Lefferts recommends. “That’s a teaspoon for every 8 cups of water.”
Lefferts says that it doesn’t take much bleach, and in this case, more is not better.
“You don’t want to overdo it, because it can be harmful to your skin, but you also don’t want to underdo it,” he explains.
It’s important to have enough bleach in the washwater to kill the virus and stop it from spreading. Public health officials also recommend that people using a common washbasin empty it at least once a day, even if the water still looks clean.