A
group of children walk to a river to fill containers with water.
They drink thirstily. Elsewhere, children bathe in a pond of
stagnant water, while animals drink close by. Women lean in
to pull up heavy buckets from a well that is more than 20 meters
deep. These are daily images from Niger.
“Although people have a basic awareness about hygiene
and they usually boil water before drinking it, when they are
in the bush, they still drink water directly from puddles,”
says Eduardo Casetta, a water and sanitation expert deployed
by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies in Niger.
“Sanitation is secondary to people in Niger, as their
first priorities are food and the availability of water, whatever
the quality is,” Casetta adds.
The International Federation has begun the post-emergency phase
of its Sahel food emergency operation, which was launched in
response to widespread hunger and malnutrition. Although people’s
nutritional needs have largely been met, access to water and
sanitation is still very precarious in all parts of Niger.
This year’s food shortage in the Sahel region is not an
occasional emergency. It is the result of the extreme poverty
in which the poorest country in the world (according to the
United Nations’ Human Development Index) finds itself.
Malnutrition affects children under five first and foremost.
They are the ones who often die of diarrhoea and other preventable
diseases.
According to Ministry of Health sources, 80 percent of children's
deaths in rural areas are due to a simple lack of sanitation.
Water and sanitation is closely related to malnutrition, says
Dr Oleg Blinikov, the Federation’s health coordinator
for the Sahel operation.
“If you don’t have access to clean water, you get
intestinal infections that end up in diarrhoea. Children with
diarrhoea can’t absorb nutrition.”
“So they lose weight and get weaker, which makes them
more likely to get diarrhoea. It’s a vicious circle.”
Poor water and sanitation contributes to poverty too. Diarrhoea
and other diseases weaken breadwinners so they are less able
to support their families.
Dr Blinikov says water-related diseases are common in Niger.
They include malaria, diarrhoea, cholera, guinea worm and trachoma.
“Though water and sanitation projects are often considered
too expensive, they are nevertheless the first alternative,
together with hygiene awareness programmes, to reduce poverty
and malnutrition on a sustainable and long term basis.”
According to official data, 40 per cent of people have access
to safe water in Niger, and only five percent of the total population
has access to some sanitation facilities, such as latrines.
International Federation head of operations for Sahel, Steven
Loyst, says the Federation wants to have some mid-term and long-term
water and sanitation projects in the Sahel region, especially
in Niger, to support national Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies
in their efforts to reduce and mitigate deaths due to waterborne
diseases.
“We are looking into promoting water and sanitation actions
that complement our activities in the health sector, either
directly or at locations where we have already been working
during the food-crisis, such as Tahoua, Maradi or Zinder,”
he says.
The Federation’s approach is to do sustainable rehabilitation
work, such as restoring or extending existing systems and water
points, such as wells.
The operation wants to put an emphasis on environmental health
measures like protecting wells and surrounding structures. And
it would be integrated into existing community groups that maintain
wells and keep animals away from them to prevent their contamination
or destruction.
This approach would also take into account women’s needs,
since they are the ones fetching and dealing with water.
In Niamey, the capital, the Niger Red Cross has already finished
building latrines in a school, with funding from the Spanish
Red Cross. North of the capital, in Tahoua, the Niger Red Cross
has launched a project to train volunteers in how to build and
promote latrine use in three areas of the city. The volunteers
will educate people on building latrines and do hygiene promotion.
But many other projects depend on funding. An additional two
water and sanitation projects in schools are waiting for funds.
At least three schools in Niamey with a total of more than 10,000
pupils have no sanitation facilities, posing a health risk to
children and the wider population.
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A
group of children walk to a river to fill containers with
water.These are daily images from Niger. (p13481)
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“If
you don’t have access to clean water, you get intestinal
infections that end up in diarrhoea. Children with diarrhoea
can’t absorb nutrition.” (p13482)
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Women
lean in to pull up heavy buckets from a well that is more
than 20 meters deep.(p13485)
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Elsewhere,
children bathe in a pond of stagnant water, while animals
drink close by. (p13484)
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Malnutrition
affects children under five first and foremost. They are
the ones who often die of diarrhoea and other preventable
diseases. (p13485)
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News
