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Water access critical to beating back COVID-19 spread in slum areas © UN-Habitat/Kirsten Milhahn Fresh water for the residents of the Majengo slums on Kenya's coast has come on tap as part of a UN-Habitat rehabilitation project. (August 2018)         23 March 2020 Health As regular hand washing is a key tool in combating COVID-19, the UN and its partners are taking steps to ensure people living in informal settlements have access to running water at this critical time, according to the agency working to achieve more sustainable cities. UN-Habitat  said the impacts of the new  coronavirus  disease could be considerably higher on the urban poor living in slums, where overcrowding also makes it difficult to follow other recommended measures such as social distancing and self-isolation.  UN-Habitat is based in Nairobi, home to the Kibera slum, where people live hand-to-mouth and water access points are hard to find. They are