OneWorld.net (U.S.)

New York, March 21 2006: As world leaders discuss solutions to the growing water crisis at the World Water Forum in Mexico City, a meeting of children, backed by the United Nations, called for urgent help for 400 million children struggling to survive without safe water around the globe.

"Waterborne illness kills a child every fifteen seconds and underlies much of the world’s disease and malnutrition," said Ann Veneman, Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which co-sponsored the event. “Solutions to the world water crisis must ensure that children survive, thrive, learn and live in dignity.”

That message was delivered to Government ministers attending the Water Forum by participants in the Children’s World Water Forum (CWWF), attended by more than 100 child activists from both poor and industrialised countries.

“Where I live, many children are out of school because of diseases they catch from their drinking water or from their unwashed hands,” said Dolly Akhter, a 16 year-old hygiene educator from a Bangladesh slum. “We are here to remind leaders that they must act to protect our health and education. It is our right and their responsibility.”

UNICEF says that children pay the highest price in an unhygienic world where over 1 billion people struggle without safe water and one in three lacks even a basic toilet. Ordinary diarrhoea sickens more children under five than any other illness, killing 4,500 children every day, the second highest single cause of child death.

Major social needs such as education are closely linked to safe water and hygiene, the agency adds. Every day, a large number of children in developing countries miss school because of diseases like diarrhoea and intestinal worms. Without decent sanitation facilities at school, many girls find attendance impossible.

In addition to UNICEF, the CCWF was co-organized by the Mexican Institute of Water Technology, the Japan Water Forum and the United States-based water organisation Project WET.

SOURCE: UN News Service