Ukrainian children struggle to access water amid war
As the violence in Ukraine continues, many children are struggling to access drinking water
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Every day, 12-year-old Amina visits her former school in Myrnohrad in eastern Ukraine. Nowadays, after 12 months of war, she only comes here to collect drinking water. Constant shelling of the frontline city's utility infrastructure has left it without a stable water supply for a year.
“Sometimes there is no water for three or four days”
In Myrnohrad, the centralised water supply is only available once every few days, while the delivery of drinking water remains problematic. Amina and her mother take large plastic bottles to a borehole in the schoolyard.
"Sometimes there is no water in the tap for three or four days,” says Amina. “And even if it starts running, it’s rusty and you can't drink it. That's why we always come here with plastic bottles.”
Amina's family needs about 40 litres of water a day, so Amina helps her mother to carry the heavy bottles, despite freezing temperatures and icy roads.
"Often, there is no water and power,” explains Amina. “There's also no internet connection, which makes it difficult to study online.”
There are several drinking and utility water points in the city, which help families in the absence of a stable water supply.
As part of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme, water supply networks in several districts of Myrnohrad have been reconstructed and drinking water storage tanks have been installed.
“The war is horrifying”
Last fall, the escalating violence in Ukraine forced Amina and her mother to flee from the frontline village of Kurakhivka to live with relatives in Myrnohrad.
"The war is horrifying,” says Amina.. “I know it after coming under fire. My friend and I were making beaded bracelets in the yard when the fierce shelling started, so we crawled under the table in the gazebo. There was smoke, fire and shrapnel all around us.”
A playground next to where the family once lived has been devastated by shelling and a neighbour recently was recently killed.
"He was repairing the roof in the yard and then he went towards the house,” recalls Amina. “That was the last time I saw him alive.”
"Here in Myrnohrad, I can at least sleep and walk outside from time to time," she adds.
Myrnohrad is located far from the frontline, so Amina has slowly overcome her fear of gunfire. But there is still so much missing from her young life.
"I'd prefer to go to school for studying, not for collecting water," says Amina, sadly.
One year since the war in Ukraine escalated, children are still counting the cost of the violence, with access to education, health care and even drinking water disrupted. UNICEF continues to provide emergency water supplies, restore water and sewerage networks, and set up drinking water points in temporary accommodation centres, healthcare facilities, educational facilities and bomb shelters. Since 24 February, UNICEF has provided access to clean water to more than 4.6 million people in Ukraine.
