What we do

Every day, millions of children in our region live with menacing conditions that threaten their lives and futures: unsafe water, improper sanitation and unhygienic habits. They also weaken adults, inhibit gender equality and slow national economic growth. These conditions pervade our region:

• Lack of sanitation. Around 670 million people, or 34 per cent of the total population, in our region do not have access to proper sanitation facilities.
• Lack of safe water. Some 236 million people, or 12 percent of the total population, lack access to safe drinking water.
• Health impact on children. Millions of children in our region suffer from diarrhoeal diseases and intestinal worms because of unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
• Social and economic impacts. Girls drop out of school because they have to spend hours fetching water or because their schools do not have private and safe latrines. Women waste hours lugging water home, leading to poor breastfeeding and child care practices. Adults sick with water-borne diseases cannot work.
• Disparities. Differences in access to safe water and sanitation in our region reveal widening social gaps, with rural areas, urban slums and shantytowns lagging far behind.

UNICEF is working hard to meet the Millennium Development Goal target of cutting by half the proportion of people who do not have sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. We seek to secure water supplies and improve sanitation facilities in schools, homes and communities. UNICEF also takes the lead in providing water and sanitation during emergencies.