Seven Million Iraqi Children Lack Access to Safe Water at School, Says UN Official

3/20/2023 4:16:50 AM

(MENAFN) More than seven million Iraqi children have difficulty accessing safe water at school 20 years after the US-led invasion and the ensuing violence left much of the country's infrastructure damaged or neglected, a UN official told The National. Iraq's 21 million children make up nearly half of the population, but nearly half of all schools in the country do not have clean safe water. One million children are in need of humanitarian assistance and about two million are out of school entirely due to the prevalence of child labour, the UN children's agency Unicef said. For years the country has faced water scarcity issues, compounded by climate change, that affects the peace and security of the region.

The invasion and ensuing violence left the country in a shambles, while corruption and mismanagement led to a slow reconstruction effort that means many schools, hospitals and other vital infrastructure is poor quality, damaged or crumbling. This has hugely affected children. “Fifty per cent of schools lack basic water, sanitation and hygiene services [Wash] depriving access to safe water for over 7.25 million students, 52 per cent of whom are girls,” Alix Reboul-Salze, Unicef’s communication specialist, told The National.[1]

“The lack of gender-sensitive Wash facilities is one of the main drivers of girls’ school drop-out,” Mr Reboul-Salze said. About a quarter of young children are not receiving routine immunisation, said the Unicef official, adding that children going from "learning to earning" is another critical challenge. During the past year, Iraq has been mired in political instability and protests with a focus on Baghdad and Basra that affected public investment in the social sectors and service provision for children and young people, according to Unicef.

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