The COVID-19 pandemic is making efforts to expand clean water access—especially in impoverished communities around the world—even more vital.

While in the United States, we’re fighting the virus by following infectious disease experts’ advice to wash our hands for at least 20 seconds, easy access to soap and clean water is not a privilege that everyone on the planet enjoys.

Research from the World Resources Institute reveals that 3 billion people (40% of the world’s population) don’t have the facilities to wash their hands at home, and almost an additional billion people don’t have secure access to water, with frequent shutoffs reducing their ability to practice safe hand hygiene.

“Water crises were ranked above both infectious diseases and food crises in the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Risks Report. This year, the world is likely to see all three,” writes Alan Nicol, strategic program for the International Water Management Institute, in the May 12, 2020, issue of Foreign Policy. “It is essential that clean water reaches as many people as possible to enable them to take the basic precautions needed to reduce the risk of infection from the coronavirus.”

Even before COVID-19, 780 million people in developing nations were already vulnerable when it came to securing clean and safe access to water, according to a 2012 report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. The water crisis in many nations can be deadly: Unsafe drinking water, inadequate water supply and lack of proper sanitation contribute to about 88% of deaths from diarrheal diseases. Added to those numbers are the millions of people infected with tropical diseases related to water-related issues and poor hygiene practices.

But it’s not all gloom and doom: The Safer Water, Better Health study from WHO study shows that water, sanitation and hygiene intervention programs could prevent at least 9.1% of the global disease burden and reduce the number of deaths by 6.3%. These interventions include wells like the 614 well projects spearheaded by the Living Water Project since its founding in 2000.

Not only will expanded water access keep rural and impoverished communities from being disproportionately affected by the coronavirus during this time of heightened crisis, but it will help these communities stay resilient, healthy and sustainable far into the future.