In Iraq in 1999, girls collect water from a Mark II handpump installed by UNICEF outside a house in the village of Awdalok, near the northern town of Koya. Worldwide, 2.6 billion people still don’t have access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
UNICEF/ HQ99-0663/Giacomo Pirozzi
Lack of clean water and sanitation is a massive problem in sub-Saharan Africa: here, in countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda, 4 out of 5 children either use surface water or have to walk for more than 15 minutes to find a protected water source. From 1990 to 2006 more than 1.6 billion people gained access to improved water sources, but not all of these new sources are necessarily safe.
The biggest danger in water is human faeces – solid human excrement – which can cause fatal diseases including polio, typhoid and cholera. It gets into the water supply if there aren’t proper sanitation systems. Malaria, yellow fever, river blindness and other diseases can be caused by insects, which breed in or near dirty water. Parasites – worms – can also cause illnesses.
Chemicals, such as pesticides which are used to protect crops, can seriously harm children and also get into their sources of water. Bad hygiene – not washing your hands – and skin contact with dirty water can also cause infections, such as trachoma, which can blind you in later life.
The lack of safe water and sanitation causes big problems for children – and not just in direct ways by making them sick. Children, especially girls, often miss out on their education because they need to fetch water for their family. If their school doesn’t have toilets, or if there aren’t any separate toilets for girls and boys, children might not want to go there.
Improving access to water and sanitation can make an enormous difference to communities. Along with information about hygiene and how to prevent infections, this can dramatically improve the health of communities. And healthy kids who don’t have to walk long distances to fetch water are more likely to go to school.
In the Millennium Development Goals, governments have promised to half the number of people without access to safe water and improved sanitation by 2015.
UNICEF works globally to improve water supplies and sanitation facilities for children. We work in schools to promote and establish safe hygiene, and in times of emergency to ensure basic sanitation facilities are provided.
UNICEF also participated in 2008 in the International Year of Sanitation, which focused on key messages that underline both the benefits of improved sanitation and the need for action.