國家地理:新冠病毒和洗手文化(3)

If you add up all the situations in which international authorities such as UNICEF recommend washing hands during this pandemic -- after visiting a public space or touching a surface outside the home, after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose, and of course after using the toilet or taking out garbage and before and after eating -- it easily amounts to at least 10 times a day.

如果把聯(lián)合國兒童基金會這類國際權(quán)威機構(gòu)建議民眾在這次疫情期間的洗手時機加總起來，那么每天隨便都要洗至少十次手--到過公共場所或在屋外觸摸任何物品之后；咳嗽、打噴嚏或擤鼻涕之后；當(dāng)然還有上廁所或倒垃圾之后，以及用餐前后。

That's a lot of handwashing. A single 20-second wash plus wetting and rinsing uses at least two liters of water, more than half a gallon. A family of four washing 10 times a day each would use 80 liters just for handwashing. In the United States, where the average person consumes up to 100 gallons daily (around 379 liters), that's no big deal. In much of India and other parts of the developing world, it's an unimaginable luxury.

這表示要洗很多次手。一次20秒的洗手加上把手弄濕及沖干凈，至少要用掉2公升的水。在美國，平均每人每天消耗100加侖（約379公升），這沒什么大不了的。若是一家四口每人每天洗十次手，光是洗手就要用掉80公升的水。在印度多數(shù)地區(qū)和其他發(fā)展中國家，這是難以想象的奢侈。

Last year, after Chennai, India's sixth largest city, ran out of water during a prolonged drought, NITI Aayog, an Indian governmental think tank, released a report on the country's ongoing water crisis. It found that nearly 60 percent of India's urban households don't have piped running water. In the countryside, the figure rises to 82 percent, or 146 million rural homes without an adequate water supply.

去年，在印度第六大城市金奈因長期干旱而缺水后，印度國家轉(zhuǎn)型委員會（印度政府智庫）發(fā)表了一篇關(guān)于該國持續(xù)存在的缺水危機的報告。報告發(fā)現(xiàn)，印度有將近60%的都市家庭沒有自來水。在鄉(xiāng)村地區(qū)，這個數(shù)字攀升至82%，也就是1億4600萬個鄉(xiāng)村家庭沒有足夠供水。

Here's just one example of what that life looks like. In the village of Kaithi, in the Bundelkhand region in north-central India, there is one shared tap for every five households. Bundelkhand has suffered 13 droughts in the past two decades. Water shortage is a way of life here.

這里有個例子說明這種生活樣貌。在印度中北部邦德爾肯地區(qū)的凱提村，每五個家庭共享一個水龍頭。在過去20年里，邦德爾肯地區(qū)已經(jīng)歷過13次旱災(zāi)。缺水是這里的生活常態(tài)。