As per the latest report, ‘Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in schools Special focus on COVID-19’ released by World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme(JMP), around 818 million children across the world lacked basic hand-washing facilities in their schools which makes them prone to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and other transmittable diseases.
About the report:
The programme produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). The programme is responsible for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets and indicators related to WASH.
Highlights of the report
i.Of the 818 million(~) children, 355 million went to schools which had facilities with water but no soap, and 462 million to schools which had no facilities or water available for handwashing.
ii.More than one third of these children (295 million) are from sub-Saharan Africa.
iii.7 out of 10 schools lacked basic hand washing facilities and half of schools lacked basic sanitation and water services in the least developed countries.
iv.3 in 4 of the children in 60 countries (at the highest risk of health and humanitarian crises from COVID-19) lacked basic hand washing service at their school at the start of the outbreak; half of these children lacked basic water service and more than half lacked basic sanitation service.
v.1 in 3 schools worldwide had either limited drinking water service or no drinking water service at all.
vi.698 million children lacked basic sanitation service at their school.
vii.Around the world, 43% of schools lacked access to basic handwashing with soap and water in 2019.
Recent Related News:
i.According to the report, “State of World Population 2020: Against my will – Defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality” released by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), India accounts for 45.8 million of the world’s 142.6 million “missing females” over the past 50 years & it has the highest number of missing women after China (72.3 million).
ii.The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published the report, COVID- 19 and Tourism: Assessing the Economic Consequences stating that the World Tourism sector could lose around 1.2trillion USD or 1.5% of the Global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) because of the 4months lockdown due to global pandemic situation.
About UNICEF
Headquarters– New York, United States of America(USA)
Executive Director– Henrietta Holsman Fore
About WHO:
Headquarters– Geneva, Switzerland
Director-General– Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
