Tag Archives: cholera

Cause for Celebration: An MDG Met

Where there’s a will, there’s a way:  The UN announced yesterday that 89% of the world’s population – 6.1 billion people – now has access to safe drinking water.  A Millennium Development Goal, to halve the number of people who had unsafe drinking water by 2015, has been reached early.  Between 1990 and 2010 more than 2 billion people received access to improved drinking water through projects like pipes and protected wells. Contaminated water poses a host of dangers, many of which effect children disproportionately more than adults. More than 3,000 children die daily from diarrhoeal diseases, and 88% of these deaths are due to poor drinking water, lack of sanitation, and poor hygiene.

It is wonderful news that the majority of people now do not have to be concerned about their drinking water, but that only solves part of the problem.  To truly improve the lives and health of the poorest people proper sanitation and hygiene practices are essential.  The UN warns that sanitation aspect of the water MDG is still off track. The Gates Foundation, the UN, and other groups like the Global Soap Project are working on both the grassroots and government level to teach good hygiene and provide proper sanitation.  One of the ways they are doing this is to reward village chiefs and leaders for their roles in improving their villages.

The chief of Massane village shows the bicycle he got as a reward for the village's certification of "open defecation free" status.

The fact that the Millennium Development Goal for safe drinking water has been met is a testament to the power and abilities of dedicated people.  Something so seemingly impossible as giving almost 90% of the world’s population safe, clean drinking turned out to be perfectly achievable.  That means that all the other MDG’s are just as possible.  Now let us press forward with renewed hope and passion, and give children and families the world over a fair shot a full and healthy life.

And a Happy World Toilet Day to You

November 19th was declared to be World Toilet Day by the World Toilet Organization in 2001.  It was created to raise global awareness of the 2.6 billion people – more than a third of the world’s population – that live without daily access to clean and proper sanitation.  Today it is celebrated in over 19 countries with over 51 events held by various water and sanitation organizations.

A Nepalese girl at one of 1,400 toilets built by World Vision in the Kaski district.

Toilets are more than an item of convenience.  For chidren especially, they can be a matter of life and death.  Children living in households without toilets are twice as likely to get diarrhea as those with toilets. Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death in children under 5 – it kills more kids every year than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Improper hygiene leads to contaminated water, which causes a host of infections that are especially dangerous to young children.  Many children in poverty stricken areas are under or malnourished which puts them at double risk for the preventable but otherwise deadly diseases that are caused by poor sanitation, such as cholera, diarrhea, pneumonia, typhoid, and dysentery.

Every day over 6,000 children die due to contaminated water, poor sanitation, and hygiene – nearly one child every 7 seconds. The majority of illnesses in the world are cause by feces: one gram of feces contains 10 million viruses,1 million bacteria, 1,000 parasites, and 100 worm eggs.  The average family in the developing world without access to a toilet consumes about 10 grams of fecal matter a day.  To a child with a weakened immune system, this kind of exposure can be death sentence.  Clean water and proper sanitation can cut a community’s child mortality rate in half.  Access to clean water enables parents to improve the health, hygiene and overall well-being of their children, allowing them to grow and prosper to their full potential.

Help provide clean water and a proper toilet to a child in need by donating to a program like World Vision’s Water and Sanitation Fund which multiplies gifts three times and uses them “to build wells, treat contaminated water, and provide storage containers to save fresh rainwater for later use”.  Also support WaterAid as they endeavor to make water, sanitation, and hygiene a national priority in Sub-Saharan Africa, where inadequate water and sanitation services hold back social and economic development and ultimately cost the region 5% of the gross domestic product every year.  Lend your voice to the cause of sanitation and spread awareness this World Toilet Day for the billions of people out there who don’t have access to a proper toilet.

UNHCR Confirms Cholera Outbreak in Dadaab

There are currently at least 60 confirmed cases of cholera and one death in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. The UNHCR and other agencies have set up cholera treatment centers throughout the camp to try and treat the most severe cases.  The UNHCR believes that the disease was probably brought by some of the newcomers who likely acquired it on their way to Dadaab. The start of the rainy season in October has caused flooding that washed away tents and latrines, contaminating the standing water.  Flooding has also hampered the ability of agencies to truck clean water to some parts of the camp, and some refugees have resorted to using unsafe water from flooded areas.

50% of the children arriving in the Dadaab are malnourished and their condition worsens daily.  With the weak and undernourished being the most susceptible to cholera, this new outbreak paints a grim future for the youngest and most vulnerable in the camp.

Malnourished Children in Dadaab

Health and nutrition programs have been set up by a range of experienced partner agencies (World Vision, Medicins sans Frontieries) to address malnutrition, especially among the youngest children, but progress has been slow.  However, the number of deaths among children under 5 has dropped dramatically since the programs were implemented late in the summer.  This a testament to the value of such programs, as well as the health care, water, and sanitation services.  With some 1,600 new refugees arriving daily, and flash floods destroying tents and toilets, the dedicated organizations find themselves stretched thinner than ever. Thousands of lives, so many of them children, depend on the availability of these services, and the availability of the services depend on the financial resources of the organizations that offer them.