Safe Water 4 All = Resilient Communities & Healthy Children
Access to safe water is key to ensuring the rights of every child to health, nutrition, education and protection.
Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a strong El Nino-induced drought leading to water scarcity. Water scarcity increases the risk of waterborne diseases and malnutrition among children. It also leads to school dropouts and child exploitation and abuse as children are mobilised to fetch water from far away distances, in insecure circumstances as water is fetched sometimes late in the evening or early morning.
The El Nino-induced droughts remind us of the critical nature of ensuring sustained access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) to prevent and respond to climate change shocks like droughts. Our response cannot be limited to providing food assistance. By ensuring sustainable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene, we contribute to ensuring the protection of the rights of children, including children's rights to health, nutrition, education, and protection. By providing access to safe water in communities, we build their resilience to cope with climate change-related shocks like the El Nino-induced drought and to prevent child malnutrition, morbidity and mortality, and we contribute to a sustainable future at the community level.
To respond to the water scarcity households are facing, the Government, UNICEF and partners are enhancing safe water supply to communities, health facilities, and schools facing water insecurity through (1) rehabilitation of existing water systems and construction of new water systems including climate-resilient multi-purpose solar-powered piped water systems which enable safe drinking and domestic water as well as water for livestock and gardens; (2) increasing water storage capacity at the community and institutional level; (3) promoting safe hygiene and sanitation practices and water conservation.
UNICEF works with the Government and partners to implement innovative approaches to ensure sustainable and affordable access to safe water at the community level, such as the installation of water kiosks in urban areas and insurance for solar-powered piped water systems in rural areas.
UNICEF calls on the Government, donor community and partners to prioritise interventions aimed at providing sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities for children and their families in communities. Increased funding will enable the implementation of innovative approaches that build community resilience to effectively mitigate the consequences of climate-related shocks, preserve development gains and protect the well-being of children.
Key Figures (Zimbabwe)
81% of people
have access to safe water in rural areas.
34.6 million USD is needed for UNICEF's WASH response to the El Nino emergency.
55% of rural people have access to improved sanitation facilities.
25% of rural people practice open defecation.
43% of the rural population still walk between 501 meters and more than 1 kilometer to fetch water.
Over 17 districts are prone to suffer from acute water shortages due to El Nino.
50,000 USD is the cost of a water kiosk providing safe water to over 2,500 people at community level.