Nepal's progress to increase access to sanitation, water supply significant: UNICEF

Nepal has made significant progress in the last decade and has recently met its MDG (Millennium Development Goals) commitments by increasing access to sanitation to 62 per cent and water supply to 85 percent, the UNICEF said.

Noting that Nepal is now working to achieve universal access in both sanitation and water supply by 2017, the UN agency however said Nepalis children particularly those under 5 years of age still face multiple obstacles to survival and development.

"These deaths are intricately linked to safe drinking water and proper sanitation hygiene. Diarrhoea continues to be a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in Nepal, and every year claims the lives of 2100 children under 5"

Over 4 million people do not have access to improved drinking water and approximately 9 million Nepalese still defecate in the open, according to UNICEF.

Globally, an estimated 2,000 children under the age of five die every day from diarrhoeal diseases and of these some 1,800 deaths are linked to water, sanitation and hygiene, according to UNICEF.

Almost 90 percent of child deaths from diarrhoeal diseases are directly linked to contaminated water, lack of sanitation, or inadequate hygiene, says UNICEF. nepalnews.com