tap water |
Water, sanitation
and hygiene, usually treated by governments and NGOs as a separate
policy area from food and nutrition, make up the second leading cause of
stunted growth in children, after underweight births, said the report.
But only Cambodia,
Niger, and Zimbabwe among the ten countries covered by the report are
linking their response to malnutrition and water by bringing together
the responsible agencies, according to charity WaterAid.
"Improving child
health is a long term issue. It's not as simple as giving food and that
improves malnutrition - right?" Dan Jones of WaterAid said..
Jones said
governments that treat food and water separately cannot prevent
malnutrition. Instead, they must tackle the poor sanitation that causes
malnutrition, via infection and disease.
In 2016, 155
million children under five were stunted due to a lack of nutrition,
according to the United Nations World Health Organization.
Diseases caused by
dirty water and lack of sanitation such as gut infections, intestinal
worms, and diarrhoea prevent young bodies absorbing the nutrients needed
for growth, according to WaterAid, which produced the report with
charities Action Against Hunger and SHARE.
Jones said malnutrition can leave children with invisible cognitive, emotional and physical damage.
Yet the effects are clear, and span all areas of development, from economic growth to schooling, said Jones.
"If they have clean
water... girls, when they grow up to be mothers are more likely to give
birth to healthy children, and to be able to help them to grow and
develop and provide them with clean water and food - and those children
can go to school and concentrate in school," said Jones
Jones singled out Cambodia for linking up its response.
One in three
Cambodian children under five is stunted but Prime Minister Hun Sen has
brought together the ministries responsible for nutrition, health,
agriculture, and water and sanitation to create a joint response.
"It sounds very obvious but those ministers really talking to each other can make a huge difference," said Jones.
No comments:
Post a Comment