180m lack access to drinking water—UNICEF.
More than 180 million people lack access to basic drinking water in countries affected by conflict, violence and instability around the world, the United Nations Children’s Fund has warned.
The Fund estimates 75% of water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed in conflict-ridden northeast of Nigeria, leaving 3.6 million people without even basic water services.
In famine-threatened north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, nearly 30 million people, including 14.6 million children, are in urgent need of safe water.
Of the estimated 484 million people living in fragile situations in 2015, 183 million lacked basic drinking water services.
Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation.
In Syria, where the conflict is well into its seventh year, around 15 million people are in need of safe water, including an estimated 6.4 million children.
In South Sudan, where fighting has raged for over three years, almost half the water points across the country have been damaged or completely destroyed.
“In far too many cases, water and sanitation systems have been attacked, damaged or left in disrepair to the point of collapse.
And in South Sudan, the cholera outbreak is the most severe the country has ever experienced, with more than 19,000 cases since June 2016.