More investments needed to end drought in Horn of Africa – UN.
The United Nations is urging for more investment in long-term projects to protect people in developing countries from droughts, following a visit by heads of UN agencies to Ethiopia, where 9.5 million people are in need of food assistance.
Ethiopia’s Somali Region, where rains have failed for the third consecutive year, is experiencing emergency levels of hunger – one level below famine in a five-point scale used by food agencies.
While touring the region last week, the heads of the United Nations food agencies said more investment is needed in long-term projects to protect people in developing countries from drought.
One thing is for sure, we’ve got to scale up.
The heads of the UN food agencies said investment in irrigation, water points, rural financial institutions, health and veterinary services helps communities to protect themselves and their livestock through even a devastating drought.
One thing is for sure, we cannot continue going by a project approach.
You have the drought here, which means the cattle the livestock suffer, which means the people suffer, which means there’s hunger that is the issue here.
Everyone around here has experienced the same level of suffering caused by the drought,” said Fatuma Muktar Sheikh Abdulnasir.
According to the U.N, close to 17 million people across the Horn of Africa need humanitarian aid due to drought, including 2.6 million in Kenya and 3.2 million in Somalia.

UN food agencies urge more support to Ethiopia’s drought response.
ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — Heads of three UN food agencies have jointly called on the global community to strengthen drought response interventions in Ethiopia.
The call was made on Monday in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa by the visiting chiefs of the three UN food agencies who are David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the world Food and Agricultural Organizations (FAO), and Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The officials, after their four-day joint visit in drought-affected Tigray and Somali regional states of Ethiopia from September 1 to 4, highlighted the critical food and nutrition security situations underway in the east African country.
Noting the need for collaborative efforts in tackling the drought scenario from deteriorating further, the three chiefs also praised the Ethiopian government’s efforts in responding to the crisis.
"We need to be grateful to what the Ethiopian government has been able to achieve working with donors," said Beasley.
The Government of Ethiopia and its humanitarian partners had launched the 2017 Humanitarian Requirements Document looking for 948 million U.S. dollars to reach close to 5.6 million people with emergency food and non-food assistance.
As rains failed for the third consecutive year in southern and southeastern parts of Ethiopia, the worst drought affected areas, the number of Ethiopians who are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance has since then escalated to more than 8.5 million during the second half of 2017.
The three agency chiefs also discussed with senior Ethiopian government officials and representatives from other partner organizations on how best to strengthen the support to continue meeting Ethiopia’s development goals while simultaneously addressing humanitarian challenges along the way.

UNICEF provides water kits, hygiene kits, temporary sanitation facilities for Marawi.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday said they are working hand-in-hand with other partners to address the concern on the lack of access to basic drinking water of chidlren affected by the Marawi siege.
“In response to the Marawi conflict, UNICEF has been working with the government and NGO [non-governmental organization] partners with support from the Government of Japan and the United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund to address critical needs of displaced children and their families, providing water kits, hygiene kits and temporary sanitation facilities," UNICEF Philippines Representative Lotta Sylwander said in a statement.
“Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene.
More than 180 million people around the world affected by conflict, violence, and instability do not have access to basic drinking water, UNICEF warned on Tuesday, as World Water Week approaches.
According to a recent UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO) analysis, of the estimated 484 million people living in fragile situations in 2015, a total of 183 million lacked access to basic drinking water.
In the Philippines, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has the lowest coverage of basic drinking water services and sanitation facilities, UNICEF said.
According to UNICEF, "Only 62% of households in ARMM have access to basic water services and only 22% of households have their own hygienic toilets (compared to, respectively, 91% and 75% at the national level)."
When children have no safe water to drink, and when health systems are left in ruins, malnutrition and potentially fatal diseases like cholera will inevitably follow,” said Wijesekera.
—Akari Nakano/KG, GMA News

Africa: In Crisis-Torn Countries, Children’s Access to Safe Water and Sanitation Is a Right, Not a Privilege – Unicef.
"Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege" said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene, who warned, as World Water Week gets underway, that more than 180 million people in crisis-torn countries have no access to drinking water.
UNICEF said that in Yemen, a country reeling from the impact of over two years of conflict, water supply networks that serve the country’s largest cities are at imminent risk of collapse due to war-inflicted damage and disrepair.
Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation.
As for 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.
The UN agency adds that 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.
Somalia is suffering from the largest outbreak of cholera in the last five years, with nearly 77,000 cases of suspected cholera/acute watery diarrhoea.
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, said UNICEF.
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.

UNICEF provides water kits, hygiene kits, temporary sanitation facilities for Marawi.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday said they are working hand-in-hand with other partners to address the concern on the lack of access to basic drinking water of chidlren affected by the Marawi siege.
“In response to the Marawi conflict, UNICEF has been working with the government and NGO [non-governmental organization] partners with support from the Government of Japan and the United Nations’ Central Emergency Response Fund to address critical needs of displaced children and their families, providing water kits, hygiene kits and temporary sanitation facilities," UNICEF Philippines Representative Lotta Sylwander said in a statement.
“Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene.
More than 180 million people around the world affected by conflict, violence, and instability do not have access to basic drinking water, UNICEF warned on Tuesday, as World Water Week approaches.
According to a recent UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO) analysis, of the estimated 484 million people living in fragile situations in 2015, a total of 183 million lacked access to basic drinking water.
In the Philippines, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has the lowest coverage of basic drinking water services and sanitation facilities, UNICEF said.
According to UNICEF, "Only 62% of households in ARMM have access to basic water services and only 22% of households have their own hygienic toilets (compared to, respectively, 91% and 75% at the national level)."
When children have no safe water to drink, and when health systems are left in ruins, malnutrition and potentially fatal diseases like cholera will inevitably follow,” said Wijesekera.
—Akari Nakano/KG, GMA News

Yemen’s unsung heroes in the battle against cholera.
The cholera epidemic that has ravaged war-torn Yemen has been declining for the past two months because of an unprecedented response by "unsung local heroes", the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Due to the efforts of thousands of local volunteers backed up by UN agencies, the weekly number of suspected new cases of cholera had fallen by a third since the end of June, the Unicef said.
The United Nations has called Yemen the "largest humanitarian crisis in the world".
On August 14, the World Health Organisation said that cholera is believed to have affected more than 500,000 people and killed nearly 2,000 in Yemen since late April.
According to Unicef, more than half of suspected cases were children.
"Amid the suffering, ordinary Yemenis are leading a heroic daily fight against acute watery diarrhoea and cholera which is now paying off," the Unicef statement said.
"Massive collective efforts to treat the sick and improve water and sanitation systems have helped slow the spread of the disease," it said.
An estimated 8,400 people have been killed and 48,000 wounded since the civil war erupted.
_________________ Read more: How cholera outbreak is adding to Yemen’s woes Coalition requests UN control of Sanaa airport to enable relief flights More than 1 million malnourished children in Yemen at risk of cholera _________________

Children’s access to safe water and sanitation is a right, not a privilege – UNICEF.
“Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene, who warned, as World Water Week gets underway, that more than 180 million people in crisis-torn countries have no access to drinking water.
UNICEF said that in Yemen, a country reeling from the impact of over two years of conflict, water supply networks that serve the country’s largest cities are at imminent risk of collapse due to war-inflicted damage and disrepair.
Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation.
As for 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.
The UN agency adds that 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.
Somalia is suffering from the largest outbreak of cholera in the last five years, with nearly 77,000 cases of suspected cholera/acute watery diarrhoea.
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, said UNICEF.
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.

In crisis-torn countries, children’s access to safe water and sanitation is a right, not a privilege – UNICEF.
“Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene, who warned, as World Water Week gets underway, that more than 180 million people in crisis-torn countries have no access to drinking water.
UNICEF said that in Yemen, a country reeling from the impact of over two years of conflict, water supply networks that serve the country’s largest cities are at imminent risk of collapse due to war-inflicted damage and disrepair.
Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation.
As for 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 far too many cases, water and sanitation systems have been attacked, damaged or left in disrepair to the point of collapse.
When children have no safe water to drink, and when health systems are left in ruins, malnutrition and potentially fatal diseases like cholera will inevitably follow,” said Mr. Wijesekera.
Somalia is suffering from the largest outbreak of cholera in the last five years, with nearly 77,000 cases of suspected cholera/acute watery diarrhoea.
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, said UNICEF.
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.

New tool to help reduce water consumption.
DNV GL and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) have launched a new tool to help the textiles industry manage water consumption in a more sustainable manner.
While about 2.5% of the world’s water is freshwater, only 0.5% of that amount is made available to satisfy society’s needs.
Water is also an important resource in manufacturing processes, including in the textiles sector.
Reducing water consumption by establishing sustainable production processes can therefore be an advantage for companies, as well as the communities they operate in.
Self-assessment tool DNV GL and UNIDO have jointly developed a self-assessment tool to assist textile companies in evaluating the water footprint in manufacturing processes.
“The textiles processing industry is heavily dependent on water in virtually all steps of the production process, from desizing to bleaching and dyeing.
It has one of the most extensive water footprints of all sectors,” said Smail Alhilali, Industrial Development Officer and Manager of the Global Resource Efficiency and Cleaner Production (RECP) programme at UNIDO.
Combating water scarcity “DNV GL and UNIDO have a common interest in combating water scarcity and improving industry awareness of water-related risks and opportunities.
This is an area where companies have a significant potential for improvement and we are pleased to use our combined expertise to help industries assess and reduce their water footprint,” said Antonio Astone, Global Sustainability Manager at DNV GL – Business Assurance.

Over the last year, 800,000 people in Somalia have been displaced due to drought and famine according to Refugees International.
Part of the cause: climate change, says Mark Yarnell, Refugees International’s United Nations liaison.
"It’s devastating that a country that barely contributes anything to greenhouse gases is the most effected by that," he said.
The Minnesota organization has been working to combat the drought and famine in Somalia since 2016.
Idris spent a month there last year, visiting camps where displaced people and refugees have gathered to seek assistance.
It’s so dry in some areas that Idris didn’t see a single human, plant or animal.
"It’s just soil and sky," he said.
Refugee camps are filled with makeshift tents and lack clean water or bathrooms.
Women are raped at night.
Idris said that the focus of the relief effort should be in helping communities before they’re displaced.