A total of 190 million children in ten African countries are at risk.
According to the UN children’s charity Unicef, contaminated drinking water and a lack of sanitary infrastructure are endangering the lives of many adolescents around the world. “Every day, more than 1,000 children under the age of five die worldwide from diseases caused by unclean water, a lack of sanitation and poor hygiene,” UNICEF said on Monday in New York. According to Unhcr, 190 million children in ten African countries are at risk.
The situation is most serious in the West and Central African countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Somalia. Many of these countries suffer from instability and armed conflicts, making it even more difficult for children to have access to clean water and sanitation.
March 22nd is World Water Day. The UN water conference in New York also starts on this day. The aim is to examine the extent to which internationally agreed goals, including the UN sustainability goal of access for all people to clean water by 2030, can be achieved. Two billion people worldwide – one in four people – do not have clean water.
(APA/dpa)