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UNICEF helps villagers in
Comoros to protect water from volcanic eruptions
10 October 2006 – The United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) has been working with more than 100 villages on the Indian Ocean island
of Grand Comore to ensure continued access to safe, clean water following yet
another eruption of a notoriously active volcano.
Mount Karthala’s recent eruptions – two in the last year
and a half – have polluted the fragile water source on the island, the largest
in the Comoros archipelago between Mozambique and Madagascar, and left it
covered in debris.
Grand Comore has no significant rivers or streams so a
large portion of the population depends on rainwater gathered in large cisterns
or tanks. After the eruptions, the residents’ water became clogged with ash. As
a short-term solution, UNICEF trucked in millions of litres of fresh drinking
water for more than 150,000 people.
But the main goal is to make sure the invaluable
cisterns will be protected from future eruptions. More than 1,500 cisterns have
already been covered with metal sheds provided by UNICEF, ensuring a lasting
supply of clean, safe water.
The villagers’ health has improved since the cisterns
were covered. There are fewer cases of diarrhoea, especially amongst children.
The number of malaria cases is also expected to drop, now that the water is
protected from mosquitoes.
UNICEF is currently working to educate people about the
importance of staying healthy by protecting their water sources. UNICEF
Assistant Operations Officer Bernadette Nyiratunga says villagers responded to
the crisis by working closely with UNICEF and its partners, and doing what they
could to help one another.
Source: UN News Service
Make water a human right – and mean it: “Everyone
should have at least 20 litres of clean water per day and the poor should get it
for free,” says the report.
Draw up national strategies for water and sanitation:
Governments should aim to spend a minimum of one per cent GDP on water and
sanitation, and enhance equity. Water and sanitation suffer from chronic
under-funding, with public spending typically less than 0.5 per cent of GDP.
Research for the report shows that this figure is dwarfed by military spending.
For example, in Ethiopia, the military budget is 10 times the water and
sanitation budget – in Pakistan, 47 times.
Increase international aid: The report calls for an
extra $3.4 billion to $4 billion annually: Development assistance has fallen in
real terms over the past decade, but to bring the MDG on water and sanitation
into reach, aid flows will have to double, it says.
The report estimates the total additional cost of
achieving the MDG on access to water and sanitation – to be sourced domestically
and internationally – at about $10 billion a year. “The $10 billion price tag
for the MDG seems a large sum – but it has to be put in context. It represents
less than five days’ worth of global military spending and less than half what
rich countries spend each year on mineral water,” it says.
Source: UN News Service
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