The United Nations’ water agency has compiled information from UN member groups and partners about the water, sanitation, and hygiene impacts of the new coronavirus.

The links include technical guidance for water and hygiene services in refugee camps, schools, and healthcare facilities, as well as summaries of agency activities in the fight against Covid-19.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rebuked American residents for their bathroom behaviors during the Covid-19 outbreak. Not for handwashing, which is beneficial and encouraged. But for flushing items down the toilet that shouldn’t be flushed.

“Flushing anything other than toilet paper, including disinfecting wipes, can damage internal plumbing, local sewer systems and septic systems,” the agency’s statement reads. “Fixing these backups is costly and takes time and resources away from ensuring that wastewater management systems are otherwise working properly.”

Sanitary wipes are soft and plush and can be appealing when toilet paper is low. But they cause the equivalent of sewer system indigestion when flushed down the toilet.

It’s a message that water utilities are also conveying to their customers, through social media hashtags such as #WipesClogPipes and by sharing images of machinery entangled with rags, wipes, and paper towels, none of which easily breaks down in water like toilet paper.

Water utilities are reporting an increase in sewer overflows due to the blockages.

Though no cases of Covid-19 have yet been recorded among Jordan’s refugee population, the UN Refugee Agency, the Jordanian government, and their partners are mobilizing resources to prevent an outbreak in crowded camps.

In case of supply chain disruptions, aid agencies have secured and positioned a two-month supply of chlorine for water disinfection in three large refugee camps. UNICEF, meanwhile, handed out more soap and hand sanitizer.

The Jordanian government said that the refugee population will have equal access to the country’s healthcare system.

As of March 30, Jordan had recorded 259 cases of Covid-19. The country hosts more than 656,000 refugees from Syria.

During the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security asked an advisory council to prepare a report on the ability of the country’s water and wastewater providers to withstand a disaster.

The National Infrastructure Advisory Council’s report, published in June 2016, identified a number of key risks. Natural disasters, including pandemic flu, topped the list.

During a major disaster like a pandemic flu, “the effects of the event on the workforce will be a major challenge to overcome,” the report stated.

Some utilities are being tested now with the Covid-19 outbreak, particularly small utilities that are worried about operators becoming ill.

The report also warned of “cascading failures,” which are a series of unfortunate events. Power outages, for instance, that cause water plant shut downs.

Emergency managers see potential cascading failures on the horizon. Federal forecasters expect major flood risks in the Dakotas and throughout the Mississippi River watershed. The mayor-president of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told Nola.com that she foresees “a fight on two fronts” — against the virus and the river.

Bryan Koon, the former director of Florida’s division of emergency management, argues that disaster planning should not be neglected in the face of the virus response.

“The bottom line here is that leaders of every government agency, private business, charitable organization and family need to start thinking about how they’re going to deal with the inevitable natural disasters yet to come.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will relax enforcement of civil penalties for noncompliance with industrial air and water pollution laws during the coronavirus outbreak, the agency announced on Thursday.

Quarantines and illness may limit staff availability and cause a facility to violate the terms of its permits, wrote Susan Bodine, the EPA assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance. That includes monitoring air emissions, sampling wastewater discharges, and filing reports.

The policy states that, in the water sector, continued operation of drinking water treatment is the highest priority. If there is a staff shortage, emphasis should be placed on monitoring water supplies for microbial pathogens, nitrate, and lead.

Environmental groups decried the policy. More than a dozen groups, including the Environmental Integrity Project, Environment Texas, and Potomac Riverkeeper Network, sent a letter to the agency objecting to a “blanket waiver” on noncompliance.

“We understand the coronavirus is a public health emergency that may require a flexible response from EPA,” the groups wrote. “That response must be tailored to specific and appropriate circumstances and not offer a blanket waiver of requirements that many companies that are up and running may have no trouble meeting.”

To be eligible for the exemption, facilities must document how the Covid-19 outbreak caused noncompliance and what efforts they made to comply with the law.

The temporary policy is retroactive to March 13, and does not apply to Superfund activities. The policy has no set end date.