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Showing posts with label diarrhoea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diarrhoea. Show all posts

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Diarrhoea kills 800 children daily - UN

Over 800 children under five years die every day around the world from diarrhoea linked to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene, reports NaijaAgroNet.

With the population growth, increased water consumption, and higher demand for water largely due to industrialization and urbanization, NaijaAgroNet gathered have gravely paved the way to draining of water resources worldwide, in addition to conflicts in many parts of the world also threaten children’s access to safe water.

As said by UNICEF in its Thirsting for a Future: Water and children in a changing climate, the above factors force children to use unsafe water, which exposes them to potentially deadly diseases like cholera and diarrhoea.

“Many children in drought-affected areas spend hours every day collecting water, missing out on a chance to go to school. Girls are especially vulnerable to attack during these times,” UNICEF official said in a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet.

The poorest and most vulnerable children, NaijaAgroNet reports, will be most impacted by an increase in water stress, as millions of them already live in areas with low access to safe water and sanitation.

The report also noted among others that globally, women and girls spend 200 million hours collecting water every day.

UNICEF further said that the impact of climate change on water sources is not inevitable, UNICEF says. The report concludes with a series of recommendations that can help curb the impact of climate change on the lives of children.

For UNICEF Executive Director, Mr. Anthony Lake, such measures should include governments need to plan for changes in water availability and demand in the coming years; Above all, it means prioritizing the most vulnerable children’s access to safe water above other water needs to maximize social and health outcomes.

Climate risks, he said, should be integrated into all water and sanitation-related policies and services, and investments should to target high-risk populations; Stressing that businesses need to work with communities to prevent contamination and depletion of safe water sources.
Lake equally charged communities to explore ways to diversify water sources and to increase their capacity to store water safely.

“In a changing climate, we must change the way we work to reach those who are most vulnerable. One of the most effective ways we can do that is safeguarding their access to safe water,” Lake said.


Isaac Oyimah/GEE 
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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Nigeria loses150,000 children from diarrhoea


The United Nations Children’s Fund has said that Nigeria loses over 150,000 children from diarrhea annually, largely caused by unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene practices, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

This revelation was made in a press release by Doune Porter, Chief of Communication of the agency as the world observes October 15, as Global Handwashing Day.

In a survey which was carried out by UNICEF in six states of Nigeria, it found that an average of 82 per cent of people washed their hands before eating, while only 53 per cent out of the total washed their hands with soap after defecation. Alarmingly, only about 14 per cent of people wash their hands with soap after cleaning a child’s faeces.

Regular handwashing with soap after using toilets, changing children’s nappies and before eating or handling food saves more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention. It can reduce deaths from diarrhea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory infections by one-quarter, NaijaAgroNet reports.

To mark this year’s Global Handwashing Day in Nigeria, UNICEF, with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, the National Task Group on Sanitation and other partners plans to reach at least 10 million Nigerians this year through high profile handwashing demonstrations in schools and communities, mass rallies, road shows, airing of jingles on radio and television, and dissemination of handwashing messages on U-Report, Facebook and Twitter.

 NaijaAgroNet  learnt that the eighth Global Handwashing Day comes less than a month after the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, including hygiene for the first time in the global agenda. One of the SDG targets is to achieve ‘access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene’ by 2030. 

Global Head of UNICEF’s water, sanitation and hygiene programmes ,Sanjay Wijesekera, said, “Along with drinking water and access to toilets, hygiene – particularly handwashing with soap – is the essential third leg of the stool holding up the Goal on water and sanitation. From birth – when unwashed hands of birth attendants can transmit dangerous pathogens – right through babyhood, school and beyond, handwashing is crucial for a child’s health. It is one of the cheapest, simplest, most effective health interventions we have.”

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE
 
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