The serious risk of disease outbreak comes after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck a remote area of eastern Afghanistan on August 31, near the border with Pakistan, destroying water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure.
“The earthquake has leveled homes and claimed too many lives, and now it threatens to claim even more through disease.”warned Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF representative in Afghanistan.
He said child survivors of the earthquake live in overcrowded displaced persons camps or makeshift shelters without access to toilets or clean water.
“This is a perfect storm for a health catastrophe”he added.
One of the main causes of death
Acute watery diarrhea is one of three types of this debilitating disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It can last several hours or days.
The disease is the third leading cause of death in children aged 1 to 59 months and kills more than 400,000 children under five years of age each year.
The WHO says that clinical diarrhea can largely be prevented through safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene, basic needs that children in Afghanistan currently lack.
No access to drinking water or soap.
UNICEF reports that in Afghanistan, 132 water sources have been destroyed due to the earthquake, leaving families without access to clean water or handwashing facilities.
Four out of five communities now practice open defecation, as most latrines were destroyed during the earthquake. Many survivors also lack access to essential hygiene items such as soap, creating conditions ripe for disease outbreaks.
Acute watery diarrhea is common in the region and communities are also at risk of contracting other waterborne diseases. Health facilities are also reporting an alarming increase in various types of skin rashes and dehydration, UNICEF says.
Emergency response is underfunded
UNICEF provides WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services to more than 60 countries, helping to prevent infections and diseases in homes, schools, health centers and public spaces.
The agency set up temporary sanitation facilities in earthquake-affected areas, distributed hygiene kits, and deployed temporary emergency water trucks while simultaneously repairing water supply systems.
However, only half of UNICEF’s $21.6 million appeal for its emergency response has been raised. Agency calls on donors to urgently increase funding.
The World Food Program also faces a funding gap of $622 million over the next six months. The agency’s operation in Afghanistan is one of six at risk, along with those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. WFP assistance in the country now reaches less than 10 percent of the millions of needy Afghans who are food insecure..
A girl washes her face in a camp for people displaced by the earthquake in Kunar province, Afghanistan.
