A water plant in the Kurdish region of northern Syria has stopped supplying drinking water to nearly half a million people in the region, raising concerns about sanitation and hygiene during the coronavirus epidemic, reports Deutsche Welle, a German media outlet.

The Alouk water station is under the control of Turkish militias, which have cut water production intermittently following an invasion into the region last October.

Misty Buswell, regional director of the International Rescue Committee, told Deutsche Welle that “the latest water stoppage could not have come at a worse time.”

Buswell expressed particular concern for those in refugee camps in the Kurdish region. Some 67,000 people are cooped up the camp at Al-Hol alone, one of those hit by the shutdown, in already catastrophic hygiene conditions.

With the water supply cut, people cannot take even the most basic health precautions such as washing their hands. “If COVID-19 reaches the camps, the disease will spread like wildfire,” Buswell warned.

Tanker trucks are being used as a stop-gap measure.

The United Nations is requesting $2 billion from member countries in a plan to prevent the coronavirus from spreading within refugee camps, slums, and other vulnerable populations.

UN officials argue that, when it comes to infectious disease, helping the poor to avoid illness is beneficial to all.

“Covid-19 has already upended life in some of the world’s wealthiest countries,” Mark Lowcock, the UN coordinator for humanitarian relief, said in a statement on Wednesday. “It is now reaching places where people live in war zones, cannot easily access clean water and soap, and have no hope of a hospital bed if they fall critically ill.

“To leave the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries to their fate would be both cruel and unwise. If we leave coronavirus to spread freely in these places, we would be placing millions at high risk, whole regions will be tipped into chaos and the virus will have the opportunity to circle back around the globe.”

One prong of the plan is to install handwashing stations in refugee camps and settlements. The UN press office did not immediately return email and phone messages asking which countries and camps would be top priorities.

The plan will be coordinated by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It brings together expertise from across the UN agencies, including UNICEF, World Health Organization, World Food Program, and more.

The Sanitation and Water for All partnership will host a webinar on March 26 on Covid-19 emergency response for water, sanitation, and hygiene.

The webinar will feature presentations from the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Government officials from Cambodia, Colombia, and Guinea will discuss the water, sanitation, and hygiene preparations in their countries.

The webinar, which will use simultaneous translation in English, French, and Spanish, will take place at local time 4:30 Mexico City/6:30 New York/10:30 Dakar/13:30 Nairobi/17:30 Bangkok.

For more information, including dial-in details, see the partnership’s website.