U.N. aims to get clean water into world’s schools

The United Nations will launch a global campaign on Monday aimed at ensuring every school in the world has clean water and sanitation within a decade, cutting health risks and raising attendance.

Access to safe water and sanitation is one of the key Millennium Development Goals to be met by 2015. Studies show that besides safeguarding health, cleaner water helps boost school attendance which in many deprived areas is very low.

"Half of the schools worldwide lack access to basic facilities like safe water and clean toilets. This is the start of a major effort to change that,” a spokeswoman for the UN children’s fund UNICEF said.

A three-day conference starting in the central English city of Oxford is bringing together governments, international agencies and NGOs from the United States to Tajikistan but with a strong emphasis on Africa, Asia and Central America.

Statistics show only 13 percent of Afghans have access to safe water and only eight percent to sanitation.

In Ethiopia 22 percent of the population has safe water but only six percent enjoys sanitation.

The picture is repeated across Africa and Asia and is closely tied to low school attendance with all the accompanying implications for literacy levels and future economic development.

In both of those countries primary school attendance is below 60 percent - dropping to just 30 percent in Ethiopia.

In Somalia, Burkina Faso, Niger, Comoros and Chad primary school attendance ranges from 11 to 39 percent and in each case the countries are among the 10 with the least access to safe water and sanitation.

The campaign, led by UNICEF aims to capitalise on the link and make governments realise that simply providing clean water and toilets in schools will boost attendance and therefore primary education.

But once in school not only will hygiene be a hot topic of education, it should also help raise the general health of the population.

Millions of children get sick and die each year because of water-borne diseases either from dirty water or from fecal contamination.

UNICEF hopes that making governments and aid agencies realise that providing the facilities and raising awareness of the importance of hygiene will bring a major bonus. 

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