The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, says Africa is facing a water catastrophe with some 190 million children facing the highest risk from a convergence of three water-related threats which are – inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene, WASH.
This was disclosed in a study released by the UN body ahead of the historic UN Water Conference taking place in New York from March 22 to 24
The study reviewed household access to WASH services, the burden of WASH-attributable deaths among children under five, and exposure to climate and environmental hazards, revealing where children face the biggest threat, and where investment in solutions is desperately needed to prevent unnecessary deaths.
The triple threat was found to be most acute in the Republic of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Somalia, making West and Central Africa one of the world’s most water-insecure and climate-impacted regions, according to the analysis.
These hotspots also rank within the top 25 percent of 163 countries globally with the highest risk of exposure to climate and environmental threats.
At the UN Water conference, UNICEF is calling for:
Rapid scale-up of investment in the sector, including from global climate financing.
Strengthening climate resilience in the WASH sector and communities.
Prioritizing the most vulnerable communities in WASH programmes and policies and Implementing the UN-Water SDG6 Global Acceleration Framework and investing in the key accelerators among others.
