A quarter of humanity lacks safe drinking water

In one suburb of Abidjan, Ivory Coast's port city and fast-growing economic hub, many communities find themselves without clean water amid the United Nations’ World Water Day. Women collect water from streams to meet household requirements. Water may dribble out of the taps at home late at night if they are lucky and homes are full of plastic containers and buckets to collect it when it does. Local officials blame insufficient electrical power for their pumps in part for the problems. “It’s not easy. Some of our kids get stomach infections. I’ve got a pregnant sister currently in the house who has an infection, a chronic infection,” Mrs. Ibrahim, a local resident, said while collecting water. Transporting and selling water at 100 Central African Franc (US$0.16) per 20-liter container is a profitable business for some. March 22 is the United Nations’ World Water Day, marked annually since 1993 to raise awareness about access to clean water and sanitation. According to the UN, one in four people – two billion people worldwide – lack safe drinking water and 1.4 million people die annually of diseases related to poor water, sanitation and hygiene. According to a new analysis by UNICEF, the UN's children's fund, 190 million children in ten African countries are at the highest risk from a convergence of three water-related threats – inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene-related diseases as well as climate hazards. One of the world's Sustainable Development Goals is for everyone to have safe water and sanitation by 2030. This article was provided by The Associated Press.