Dirty drinking water and a lack of sanitation infrastructure are endangering the lives of many adolescents worldwide, according to the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF. “Every day, over 1,000 children under the age of five die worldwide from diseases caused by dirty water, lack of sanitation and poor hygiene,” UNICEF said Monday in New York. In total, 190 million children are at risk in ten African countries, according to UNHCR.
The situation is most difficult in the West and Central African countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Somalia, it said. Many of these countries, he said, suffer from instability and armed conflict, which further complicates children’s access to clean water and sanitation.
March 22 is World Water Day. It is also the day the U.N. Water Conference kicks off in New York. The aim is to review the extent to which internationally agreed goals can be achieved, including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal on access to clean water for all by 2030. One in four billion people worldwide do not have clean water.
- source: k.at/picture: Bild von Joko Narimo auf Pixabay
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