Lack of water and inadequate sanitation
A child’s well-being is highly dependent on both the quality and the availability of water, and on how well this precious resource is managed. Around the world, both biological disease agents and chemical pollutants are compromising drinking-water quality. Contaminated water causes a range of diseases which are often life-threatening. Of the waterborne diseases affecting children, the most deadly are diarrhoeal infections. Childhood diarrhoea is closely associated with insufficient water supply, inadequate sanitation, water contaminated with communicable disease agents, and poor hygiene practices.
Diarrhoea is estimated to cause 1.5 million child deaths per year, constituting about 15% of total child deaths under five in developing countries.
Lack of adequate sanitary facilities and poor hygienic practices are common throughout the developing countries; the lowest levels of service coverage are to be found in Asia and Africa where more than half of the rural populations are excluded from any measurable progress in this area. Globally, 2.4 billion people, most of them in developing countries, do not have access to improved sanitation facilities. Data collected over ten years show that little progress has been made in reducing this number.