Every child deserves clean water
Clean water and good environmental sanitation are essential for child survival.
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In other words, increased access to clean water and sanitation are prerequisites for reducing infant mortality and improved maternal health.
However, even though Ghana is at the brink of achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7 on clean drinking water, the same can hardly be said of sanitation.
Indeed, several studies and reports have established that children in Ghana are affected by waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever which are spread mainly through the use of unsafe water.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 50 per cent of malnutrition is associated with repeated diarrhoea or intestinal worm infections as a result of unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or poor hygiene.
Globally, the statistics show that diarrhoea, a leading cause of death —1.5 million annually—in children under five years, is known to be largely caused by a lack of water, sanitation and hygiene.
In Ghana, available data indicates, approximately 19,000 Ghanaians, including 5,100 children under-five die each year from diarrhoea, nearly 90 per cent of which is directly attributed to poor water, sanitation and hygiene.
Available data also indicates that poor sanitation is a contributing factor— through its impact on malnutrition rates— to other leading causes of child mortality, including malaria and measles.
Poor water, sanitation and hygiene are also inextricably linked to childhood under-nutrition, cognitive delays and stunting.
Sanjay Wijesekera, global head of the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF’s) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programme, has observed “If 90 school buses filled with kindergartners were to crash every day, with no survivors, the world would take notice. But this is precisely what happens every single day because of poor water, sanitation and hygiene.”
Access to clean water and safe latrines is, therefore, critical in preventing the spread of bacterial diseases and ensuring that women and young girls have a secure place to practice safe and healthy menstrual hygiene.
Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO/Hutton, 2012) indicates that for every $1 USD spent on water and sanitation, there is an economic return of $4 USD.
Undoubtedly, some progress has been made since 1990, with organizations such as World Vision, Ghana (WVG) complimenting government’s efforts in the provision of water, sanitation and hygiene.
Over the past three years, it is important to note, WVG has reached 3.5 million Ghanaians with water, sanitation and hygiene and hope to reach 10 million people by the year 2016.
It will, however, require political will and investment— with a focus on equity and on reaching the hardest to reach— for every child to be able to get access to improved drinking water and sanitation, perhaps within a generation.
The writer is an Information Officer, Information Services Department.
Email: [email protected]