Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Diarrhoea: biggest killer of under five children
Published on : 6 August 2010 - 4:44pm | By RNW Africa Desk
Everyday 2,000 children in Africa die from diarrhoea. That can be prevented if people have access to sanitation, hygiene, education and clean water. Simply using a safe toilet can reduce the incidence of the disease by 40%, while a toilet together with safe water and hygiene can reduce diarrhoea by 90%.
by Dingaan Mithi
WaterAid is an international non governmental organisation working on access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world?s poorest communities. 80% of the African countries are currently off-track for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) sanitation target.
?Simple and cost-effective programmes can deliver sanitation and hygiene, not only cutting diarrhoeal rates but also significantly reducing other leading causes of child deaths such as under-nutrition and pneumonia?, reads in part a media release, issued recently.
The charity recommends to African leaders to ensure that sanitation and water are an integral part of national health strategies combined with adequate resource allocations, in addition by committing 0.5% of their respective Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Deaths of children
?The aid system?s response to the global child health crisis is not rational - put simply a major cause of child mortality is being neglected,? said Oliver Cumming, report co-author and WaterAid Sanitation Policy Officer.
Esther Sakala, a 58 year old mother of five, who lives in Mgona area of Lilongwe district , describes the fate she met in 1995 when her grandchild?s 4 month old baby died of diarrhoea.
?I rushed the baby to the hospital but all efforts failed, the baby died just after two days upon getting infected?, she says.
?I would like to urge Government to invest more resources in modern toilets, so that we can reduce these deaths, this is not the time to lose children due to water borne diseases?, noted Sakala.
Interventions by NGOs
Training Support for Partners (TSP) a local non-governmental organization in partnership with water aid are working in Mgona area to reduce waterborne diseases. Since 2007 up to now the two organizations claim that no child has died due to diarrhoea or cholera.
TSP and Water Aid are constructing toilets with community members using burnt bricks and cement. Human waste is harvested from the toilets and recycled into farm manure.
These toilets prevent flies that carry diseases onto food and water, they are also shallow and don?t pose a threat to lives, if one falls into it, we also harvest human waste from the toilets which we use in the gardens.
In 2004, diarrhoea killed 1.8 million children, yet between 2004-2006 only $1.5 billion was spent globally on improved sanitation - vital in the fight to protect children from diarrhoea. In the same period, $10.8 billion was spent on interventions for HIV/AIDS (responsible for 315,000 child deaths), and $3.5 billion on those for malaria (responsible for 840,000 child deaths).
http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/diarrhoea-biggest-killer-under-five-children
Published on : 6 August 2010 - 4:44pm | By RNW Africa Desk
Everyday 2,000 children in Africa die from diarrhoea. That can be prevented if people have access to sanitation, hygiene, education and clean water. Simply using a safe toilet can reduce the incidence of the disease by 40%, while a toilet together with safe water and hygiene can reduce diarrhoea by 90%.
by Dingaan Mithi
WaterAid is an international non governmental organisation working on access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world?s poorest communities. 80% of the African countries are currently off-track for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) sanitation target.
?Simple and cost-effective programmes can deliver sanitation and hygiene, not only cutting diarrhoeal rates but also significantly reducing other leading causes of child deaths such as under-nutrition and pneumonia?, reads in part a media release, issued recently.
The charity recommends to African leaders to ensure that sanitation and water are an integral part of national health strategies combined with adequate resource allocations, in addition by committing 0.5% of their respective Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Deaths of children
?The aid system?s response to the global child health crisis is not rational - put simply a major cause of child mortality is being neglected,? said Oliver Cumming, report co-author and WaterAid Sanitation Policy Officer.
Esther Sakala, a 58 year old mother of five, who lives in Mgona area of Lilongwe district , describes the fate she met in 1995 when her grandchild?s 4 month old baby died of diarrhoea.
?I rushed the baby to the hospital but all efforts failed, the baby died just after two days upon getting infected?, she says.
?I would like to urge Government to invest more resources in modern toilets, so that we can reduce these deaths, this is not the time to lose children due to water borne diseases?, noted Sakala.
Interventions by NGOs
Training Support for Partners (TSP) a local non-governmental organization in partnership with water aid are working in Mgona area to reduce waterborne diseases. Since 2007 up to now the two organizations claim that no child has died due to diarrhoea or cholera.
TSP and Water Aid are constructing toilets with community members using burnt bricks and cement. Human waste is harvested from the toilets and recycled into farm manure.
These toilets prevent flies that carry diseases onto food and water, they are also shallow and don?t pose a threat to lives, if one falls into it, we also harvest human waste from the toilets which we use in the gardens.
In 2004, diarrhoea killed 1.8 million children, yet between 2004-2006 only $1.5 billion was spent globally on improved sanitation - vital in the fight to protect children from diarrhoea. In the same period, $10.8 billion was spent on interventions for HIV/AIDS (responsible for 315,000 child deaths), and $3.5 billion on those for malaria (responsible for 840,000 child deaths).
http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/diarrhoea-biggest-killer-under-five-children