ONE thousand children die every day because of the combination of disease, climate risks, and unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), a report from UNICEF, published before the UN Water Conference in New York this week, warns.
The report, Triple Threat, says that 600 million children around the world still lack safely managed drinking water; 1.1 billion lack safely managed sanitation; and 689 million lack basic hygiene services. It says that 149 milion children still “face the indignity of practising open defecation”.
About two in five related deaths occur in ten sub-Saharan countries, which are classified as fragile or extremely fragile: Mali, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, and Somalia. These are home to 190 million children.
The report says: “Access to safe drinking water and sanitation are human rights to which we are all entitled. They are fundamental for human survival, dignity, economic development, and well-being. In [their] absence, children are more likely to be out of school and there is an increased risk of disease outbreaks, inter-communal tension, and population displacement.”
Climate change, urbanisation, and conflict are “undermining global efforts to achieve the Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) and threatening to roll back the gains already made”, it warns.
Globally, water demand is projected to increase by between 20 and 30 per cent by 2050. The rise in heatwaves and extreme high temperatures is increasing demand. “Droughts mean less water is available; flooding leads to water contamination, and heavy rainfall from storms and tropical cyclones proliferate vector-borne diseases. Flooded latrines and septic tanks can contaminate water supplies, making the water unsafe.”
The report describes the lack of safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene as “destructive to all aspects of a child’s life. It makes fundamental needs — good nutrition, health, education and safety — impossible.” It says that children under five who live in areas of conflict are more than 20 times more likely to die from diseases related to unsafe WASH systems than from violence.
Malnourished children, the report says, are more vulnerable to experiencing severe symptoms from cholera, and even death, because of severe dehydration. Research has shown that higher temperatures and climate-related shocks will lead to more cholera outbreaks, because these events cut off access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Much more needs to be done, the report argues. Currently, only 20 per cent of countries were carrying out WASH risk assessments on a significant scale, large enough to prepare for potential climate disasters, it says. “Although the challenge is great, ensuring that all children have access to safe, sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene is within our reach.
“Decades of experience have revealed proven solutions to unlock progress, with governments playing a central role. With just seven years left in the SDGs, we must urgently harness and scale up these solutions to protect the human right to safe WASH for every child.”
UNICEFs Director of Programmes, Sanjay Wijesekera, said: “Devastating storms, floods and historic droughts are already destroying facilities and homes, contaminating water resources, creating hunger crises, and spreading disease. But as challenging as the current conditions are, without urgent action, the future could be much more bleak.”
The charity is calling on governments and partners urgently to increase their investments in the sector in several ways. Current WASH spending must increase threefold, it says. It urges organisations to strengthen resilience in the WASH sector and communities, “leaving no one behind”.
The World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Agency have also published a report which estimates that 43,000 people died during the longest drought on record in Somalia, last year. The country and its neighbours, Ethiopia and Kenya, are facing a sixth consecutive failed rainy season, and rising global food prices complicate the hunger crisis (News, 31 August 2022).
Christian Aid has called on the UK Government to send more funding to the front line. Its interim head of global advocacy and policy, Jennifer Larbie, said: “Millions are taking desperate measures to survive in the face of failed harvests, livestock deaths, water shortages, and extreme hunger. As we have for Ukraine, we have a moral duty to act.
“The UK Government needs to heed the alarms. Ministers must urgently get more funding to the front line of this hunger crisis, mobilise the international community to act, and ensure all humanitarian support is directed to local actors who are best placed to respond.”
