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Bonn, 19.03.2008. Welthungerhilfe is calling for greater measures to improve sanitation and hygiene facilities in international development projects as well as emergency aid. "This isn't a popular subject," explains Martin Wolff, Welthungerhilfe's Programme Manager for Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, "but installing latrines and raising hygiene awareness are essential if people's health is to improve in developing countries."
In its project countries, Welthungerhilfe makes sure that those who benefit from water installations and sanitary facilities are also those who maintain, repair and administer the amenities. Raising people's awareness is a crucial aspect to achieving an overall improvement. "In a country like Germany, hygiene practices have been passed on from generation to generation as well as taught in school," explains Wolff. "In regions where people have never even lived with running water or sanitary facilities, there is a lack of education."
The inappropriate use of water remains a core cause of poverty and hunger. Every day 5,000 children under the age of five die as a result of diarrhoea-based illnesses because they and their parents are ignorant of the potentially fatal dangers of dirty water. Adults also fall sick as a result, thereby rendering them unfit for work or to farm the land.
According to UN statistics, a billion people have no access to clean drinking water. In total, 2.6 billion people have to get by without sanitary facilities. Sanitation is therefore the motto of this year's World Water Day in which the UN will promote the provision of basic sanitation.
Welthungerhilfe is one of the largest non-governmental aid organisations in Germany. It provides aid from one set of hands: from rapid emergency relief to reconstruction programmes, as well as long-term projects with local partner organisations following the principle of promoting self-help. Since its foundation in 1962 more than 5,000 projects have been carried out in 48 countries with a total funding of 1.8 billion euros - for a world free from hunger and poverty.
Martin Wolff is available for interviews upon request
For further information see www.welthungerhilfe.de
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A child receives medical treatment for hand, foot and mouth disease at a hospital in Hefei, Anhui province May 10, 2008. A strain of hand, foot and mouth disease has killed ...
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