UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — A UN report published Monday finds that nearly 570 million children around the world do not have access to drinking water at school.
The first-ever global assessment of water and sanitation in schools, which was conducted by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), shows that 620 million children do not have decent toilets at school and around 900 million cannot wash their hands properly.
The report adds that nearly half, or 47 percent, of the schools, do not provide soap for children.
Researchers also find that children at nursery and primary schools are less likely to have access to clean water and toilets than children at secondary school.
The report warns that this affects young children at an important time for their "cognitive and physical development and growth," adding that diarrhea caused by dirty water and poor toilets kills a child under the age of five every two minutes.
The report underlines the importance of hygiene and sanitation facilities in schools, particularly for girls, who are more likely to attend school and complete their education if these facilities are in place.
One of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations is that all people should have access to decent water and sanitation by 2030.
This means that all households, schools, health care facilities and workplaces should be equipped with decent water and sanitation by then.
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Moreover, children who pick up good hygiene habits at school can reinforce positive life-long behaviors in their homes and communities, says the report.
Millions of children are going to school without basic hygiene facilities, and the goal of universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene remains “a huge challenge,” the United Nations warned on Monday A new joint UN agency study, Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Schools: 2018 Global Baseline Report, says that good hygiene facilities in schools provide the basis of a healthy learning environment and that girls are more likely to attend when they are on their period.
Moreover, children who pick up good hygiene habits at school can reinforce positive life-long behaviors in their homes and communities, says the report.
However, millions of children are going to school without basic hygiene facilities: over 30 per cent of schools worldwide do not provide safe drinking water; a third of schools do not provide the most basic of toilet facilities (such as septic tank, pit latrines or composting toilets); and nearly 900 million children go to schools with no handwashing facilities with soap and water.
The annual report is produced by the World Health Organization/UN Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Programme, or JMP, which has been monitoring global progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene since 1990.
It looks at the progress made towards reaching the targets of two of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Goal 6(Clean water and sanitation), and Goal 4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all).
Commenting on the report, Kelly Ann Naylor, Global Chief of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene at UNICEF, said that “If education is the key to helping children escape poverty, access to water and sanitation is key to helping children safely maximize their education.
To neglect this is to be careless with the well-being and health of children," Universal access to basic water, sanitation, and hygiene in schools is part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but achieving this ambitious target presents a huge challenge.
The JMP has designed tools to make it easier to track progress across countries, towards a basic level of drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene service.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — A UN report published Monday finds that nearly 570 million children around the world do not have access to drinking water at school.
The first-ever global assessment of water and sanitation in schools, which was conducted by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), shows that 620 million children do not have decent toilets at school and around 900 million cannot wash their hands properly.
The report adds that nearly half, or 47 percent, of the schools, do not provide soap for children.
Researchers also find that children at nursery and primary schools are less likely to have access to clean water and toilets than children at secondary school.
The report warns that this affects young children at an important time for their "cognitive and physical development and growth," adding that diarrhea caused by dirty water and poor toilets kills a child under the age of five every two minutes.
The report underlines the importance of hygiene and sanitation facilities in schools, particularly for girls, who are more likely to attend school and complete their education if these facilities are in place.
One of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations is that all people should have access to decent water and sanitation by 2030.
This means that all households, schools, health care facilities and workplaces should be equipped with decent water and sanitation by then.

According to reports capita availability of water in Pakistan is expected to hit "absolute water scarcity" levels by 2025.
According to an earlier report by UN report – the country may run out of water by 2025.
New Delhi: In his maiden address to the nation as Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, among other issues, highlighted the impending water crisis gripping the Islamic Republic.
Pakistan by ‘Kaptan’ Khan’s own admission is facing one of the worst debt crises in its history.
He also pointed out about high child mortality rate due to contaminated water.
Neil Buhne, UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Pakistan said no person in Pakistan will be immune to the water crisis.
The report says Pakistan is on the way to become the most water-parched country in the region by 2040.
The reasons for taps running dry in Pakistan are mainly population growth, groundwater depletion, inadequate storage facilities, poor management of water resources and storage facilities among others.
The quality of issue is another issue.
A PCRWR study found that in 2015-16 about 70 percent of water samples collected were found to be unsafe for human consumption.

In the lead up to a High-level Political Forum held at the United Nations in July, which discussed progress and challenges on a range of SDGs, including goal six, WaterAid Australia drew attention to the challenges of achieving the objective.
Based on its current rate of progress, Laos is projected to achieve national access to basic water and sanitation by 2024.
By 2015, more than 91 percent of the population had access to basic water, putting the country on track to achieve universal basic water access by 2025.
“For every dollar spent on water and sanitation, on average $4 is returned in economic benefits, according to World Bank estimates.” In 2000, Papua New Guinea had enabled 36.7 percent of its population to access basic water and 18.7 percent basic sanitation.
Based on this rate of progress, Equatorial Guinea will achieve national coverage for basic water by 3119.
Beginning in 2000, data shows just 16.8 percent of the nation had access to basic water and 7.5 percent access to basic sanitation.
Just over half the population had access to appropriate facilities for basic sanitation in 2015, but with an annual progress of 0.2 percent, the country is projected to achieve basic sanitation targets by 3468.
These three nations also face other challenges.
Despite national basic water coverage, 1 percent of Germany’s population has no access to basic sanitation.
Although projections show the challenging road ahead for water and sanitation, they do not factor in additional challenges — such as future natural disasters, conflicts, and economic crises — have in achieving universal access targets.

Water scarcity has grown to be an alarming issue in current global affairs.
In 2011, 41 states around the globe have experienced some kind of water stress whilst 10 of those countries were close to depleting their supply of renewable fresh water.
Lack of access to safe, sufficient and affordable water sources has a detrimental effect on the health, dignity and prosperity of billions of people.
Seeing the significance of the aforementioned, the United Nations recognised water as a human right and thus a common public and environmental good, not longer than a decade ago.
It is often opposed by those who view water as a commodity which has to be priced to be used in an an efficient and sustainable way.
Unfortunately, water services are no exception.
In the latest decades, water privatisation has become a new opportunity for lucrative investment.
Willem Buiter, Citigroup’s top economist, emphasised ‘the water market will soon eclipse oil’.
The ‘new water barons’ — the Wall Street mega-banks and billionaire tycoons— are buying up water all over the world at an unprecedented pace.
Anti-water privatisation campaigns and protests have occurred all around the world.

At least two Palestinians were killed and several others injured.
At the height of the protests and shootings on the border of the Gaza Strip earlier this year, when Israeli forces killed more than 100 Palestinian protesters and left thousands of others injured, a senior member of the Israeli army wrote a letter to the head of the World Health Organization (WHO).
A perpetual crisis In July 2017 the UN published a detailed report on Gaza and its environment.
"On the ground, life for the average Palestinian in Gaza is getting more and more wretched," said the report.
The report projected that water resources in the aquifer will be completely exhausted by the end of 2018.
According to the UN, in 2017 blackouts for the majority of householders in the territory were lasting up to 20 hours a day.
Sewage discharged into the sea is moved northwards by winds and currents.
Last year a desalination plant in the south of the Gaza Strip became operational, supplying 75,000 people in Khan Younis and Rafah with drinking water.
After more than 10 years of delays caused by war and the blockade, the North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment plant, which will cater for the sanitation needs of more than 400,000 people, finally started preliminary operations earlier this year.
The US$75m project, funded by the World Bank, the EU and a number of other donor countries, still faces considerable difficulties, particularly over its power supply.

The drought represented an “unprecedented natural disaster”, reported the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers’ party.
We should muster all our power and capacity to fight high temperatures and droughts.” North Korea’s state-run media published several articles this weeksuggesting precautions in a country where air conditioning is almost non-existent.
Government television said the heat was taking a toll on the economy, which is already subject to a tight international sanctions regime imposed over the country’s nuclear programme.
“This weather will certainly influence food production and right now is a critical time especially for rice crops,” said Hiroyuki Konuma, a former Asia representative at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
“All the farmers have to listen to government directives and the decisions made now will be very important.
If this weather and drought continues for another week or two we should be very worried about North Korea’s food production.” The government has been working in recent years to boost production, but the system remains highly susceptible to weather extremes, he said.
Food, medicine and other humanitarian aid are exempt, and experts suggested state media attention on the problem may be a cry for help.
“There is no tomorrow when it comes to fighting against high temperatures and droughts,” the Rodong Sinmun comment said, according to a translation by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
An unnamed source quoted by Daily NK, a Seoul-based news service, said: “North Koreans are expressing a great deal of concern because people are suffering from life-threatening heat and crops that are drying out.” People have collapsed in the street due to the heat, the report said, and farmers are struggling to follow government orders to water fields by hand because of water shortages and extreme working conditions.
In South Korea, far wealthier than its northern neighbour, there have been at least 29 deaths caused by the heat and more than 3 million head of livestock have been killed.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – An attack, carried out this week on the Nushour water facility in Yemen’s northwestern city of Sa’dah, cut off 10,500 people, including over 5,000 children, from safe drinking water, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
According to the fund, this has been the third attack on the facility since this March.
"UNICEF deplores in the strongest terms yet another attack on vital and lifesaving water systems in Yemen.
A large water facility in Sa’ada, northwest of the country, came under attack this week.
This is the third such attack on the same facility.
More than half of the project is now damaged, cutting off 10,500 people from safe drinking water," a UNICEF report quoted Geert Cappelaere, the UNICEF Regional Director in the Middle East and North Africa.
According to the report, cutting off children and their families from safe drinking water increases the spread of water-borne diseases in the country, as well as the number of deaths among the country’s civilians.
The fund also urged all the warring parties in crisis-torn Yemen to cease their military activities near any civilian infrastructure, including water facilities, schools, and hospitals.
READ MORE: Saudi-led Coalition Enters Main Airport Compound of Yemen’s Hodeidah The conflict between the Yemeni government and the Houthis, ongoing since 2014, has resulted in thousands of people being killed and a major nationwide humanitarian crisis.
The conflict has already left 8.6 million children in Yemen without regular access to safe drinking water, according to UNICEF figures.

Water resource is a necessity for sustaining life on earth.
According to an IMF report, Pakistan ranks third among countries most affected by water scarcity.
It said the country touched the “water stress line” in 1990 and crossed the “water scarcity line” in 2005.
And worst of all is that the authorities have given no indication that they plan to do anything about any of this increasing water shortage.” The UN report also highlights that the most immediate threats to the masses would be of increasing water shortage, and Neil Buhne, UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Pakistan, said, “No person in Pakistan, whether from the north with its more than 5,000 glaciers, or from the south with its ‘hyper deserts’, will be immune to this.” Recent flash floods as a result of heavy rainfall have been witnessed in different areas of Pakistan for instance Lahore and Faisalabad.
Recycling at household level would also help in solving the problem.
For gardening purpose, use simple rainwater barrels.
Apart from it, rain garden could be constructed so that it reuses water that would otherwise run off into the sewage systems.
For the agriculture system, irrigation management practices may solve the problem.
Along with the rain-fed management practice, some techniques are the use of supplemental irrigation and water harvesting techniques, such as rain catchment systems and weirs or sand dams.
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