Around 1.8 billion people are at risk of COVID-19 and other diseases due to lack of water services in health care facilities, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said Monday.

The organizations said water, sanitation, and hygiene are vital to the safety of health workers and patients, however, these services are not prioritized.

“Working in a health care facility without water, sanitation, and hygiene is akin to sending nurses and doctors to work without personal protective equipment,” WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

“Water supply, sanitation, and hygiene in health care facilities are fundamental to stopping COVID-19. But there are still major gaps to overcome, particularly in least developed countries,” he added.

The WHO and UNICEF reported globally that one in four health care facilities has no water services, while one in three does not have access to hand hygiene, and one in 10 has no sanitation services.

 “As we reimagine and shape a post-COVID world, making sure we are sending children and mothers to places of care equipped with adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene services is not merely something we can and should do. It is an absolute must,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said.

The agencies said that in the world’s 47 least developed countries there are one in two health care facilities that do not have basic drinking water, while one in four health care facilities has no hand hygiene facilities, and three in five lack basic sanitation services.

The WHO and UNICEF underscored that water, sanitation, and hygiene services will reduce health care costs because it reduces health-care associated infections.

They also added that it will save time as health workers do not have to search for water for hand hygiene and better hygiene will also increase uptake of services.

“For millions of healthcare workers across the world, water is PPE (personal protective equipment). It is essential that financing keeps flowing to bring water and sanitation services to those battling the COVID crisis on the frontlines,” Global Director for Water at the World Bank GroupJennifer Sara said.

In a published data by WHO last October, it indicated that COVID-19 infections among health care workers are far greater than those in the general population.

The WHO said health care workers represent less than three percent of the population but account for 14 percent of global COVID-19 cases.

“Without frontline health workers being able to wash their hands, provide their patients with clean water, or have somewhere decent to go to the toilet, a hospital is not a hospital at all -- it’s a breeding ground for disease,” Chief Executive at International charity WaterAid Tim Wainwright said.