Making a passionate plea to eliminate viral hepatitis from WHO South-East Asia Region, film star Amitabh Bachchan, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Hepatitis in the Region, has stressed on the need for increasing awareness about the preventable disease and ending discrimination against the affected.

“If this ailment is detected in time and care can be taken, there are medications that can halt this virus. A very high burden of hepatitis exists in the South-East Asia Region. Whatever work we can do to eliminate hepatitis – to detect and cure it – we must do,” Mr Bachchan said while addressing the Seventieth Regional Committee session of WHO South-East Asia Region.

The Goodwill Ambassador said, “This is a moral and social issue. Discrimination against people with Hepatitis continues to happen socially in our midst. There are women who are refused marriage, women who are refused the ability to bear children because they have hepatitis B and there are countries who deny visa to people with hepatitis. Discrimination needs to stop. People must know that there is a cure for hepatitis.”

“Each year viral hepatitis infects millions of people across the Region, killing 410 000 people – more than HIV and malaria combined. It is also a major cause of liver cancer and cirrhosis, contributing to premature morbidity and mortality, and undermining economic growth and the push to achieve health and wellbeing for all,” Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director South-East Asia, said, stressing on the need for countries to prioritize action to reverse this trend.

At the Regional Committee meeting, Member countries adopted the regional action plan to end viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. Using the framework of universal health coverage to ensure that no one is left behind, WHO has developed the plan in consultation with Member countries, community leaders, development partners, academia and professional societies. The regional action plan provides a framework for implementing evidence based interventions.

As preventive measures WHO has been advocating for vaccinating newborns with Hepatitis B first at birth and then two to three doses of the vaccine as part of routine immunization schedule, safe blood and safe injection practices; improved sanitation, safe water and food safety; and most importantly scaling up testing and treatment of Hepatitis B and C to prevent complications such as liver cirrhosis and cancer.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee have developed a new, low-cost method for treating Osteoarthritis– a degenerative joint disease which leads to loss of bone cartilage and eventual inflammation of bone and joints.

The new treatment involves injecting ferro-magnetic nano-particles with thermal properties for treatment of the afflicted knee joints. The research published in the `Journal for Materials Science—Biomaterials.’   

According to a member of the research team, Prof K.L. Yadav, the team at IIT Roorkee developed a specific ferrite nano-material, which will provide prolonged thermo-regulated treatment.  These polymers based nano-particles when injected around the knee joint along with normal heat therapy will be able to provide long term heat therapy for the patient.

“Currently, the treatment of osteoarthritis is done using anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids, which have critical side effects on patients. Also, the treatment using such drugs cannot inhibit the natural progression of this degenerative disease,’’ says Prof Yadav, Head of Physics Department at IIT, Roorkee.

“Other than these, techniques such as knee replacement are also used, but are expensive and have a long recovery time. We wanted to develop a low cost, affordable, safe and simple therapeutic technique to inhibit the progression of the disease and enable the patient to recover faster,” Prof Yadav said.  

“We developed magnetic polymer matrix composite using ferromagnetic nano-particle structures insulated with Poly (vinylidene fluoride) polymer. It is proposed that the synthesized material in a liquid form may be injected into the affected knee joint. Once the liquid is inserted into the knee joint, the hyperthermia treatment through electromagnetic radiation can be given on the specific area at regular intervals. The heat generated during this process by the nano-particles will spread over the afflicted area for a long duration without affecting the nearby cells or tissues. This will help us in getting a focussed treatment only in the area where the therapy is required,” he explained.

The IIT Roorkee is among the foremost of institutes of national importance in higher technological education and in engineering, basic and applied research. Since its establishment, the Institute has played a vital role in providing the technical manpower and know-how to the country and in pursuit of research.

The Institute ranks amongst the best technological institutions in the world and has contributed to all sectors of technological development. The Institute had celebrated its Sesquicentennial in October 1996 and now completed more than 170 years of its existence. It was converted to IIT on September 21, 2001.  

Farmers often use toxic chemicals to destroy unwanted vegetation in their fields but such use can also adversely affect yield of crops. Now Indian scientists have found a way of making rice crop tolerant to herbicides.

A consortium of scientists led the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore has identified a novel mutant of rice which can withstand the use of a commonly used broad spectrum herbicide, Imazethapyr.

Herbicides act by disrupting key enzymes and proteins involved in essential processes associated with growth and development of plants. Imazethapyr is a popular herbicide but is not traditionally used on rice fields as it adversely affects the yield.

Over years, many herbicide-tolerant crops, including those resistant to imazethapyr, have been developed but most of them are protected under patents. The mutation identified by the group can be used without restriction in public funded rice breeding. 

Scientists used rice variety Nagina 22 in the study since it is already tolerant to heat and drought, and ideally suited for Indian conditions. In this variety, they identified a gene (HTM-N22) and the mutations within it which are responsible for development of tolerance to imazethapyr. This will enable test development for identification of the tolerant variety in rice breeding programs and protect rice cultivation from weeds. In terms of distinctness, uniformity and stability, the tolerant variety appeared indistinguishable, according to results of the study published in journal Rice.

The researchers expect HTM-N22 to have an easy process of registration for widespread commercialization since the development of this mutant did not require genetic engineering of the rice crop. They believe that the most significant use of the herbicide-tolerant mutant will be in its usage in publicly-funded rice breeding programs in India and elsewhere without the fear of infringing intellectual property.

The institutions that participated in TNAU-led project are Indian Agricultural Research Institute, National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, Punjab Agricultural University, Indian Institute of Rice Research, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru; National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack; and National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi. The network project was funded by Department of Biotechnology. (India Science Wire)

Delayed meeting of India-China Special Representatives should be convened. Reference to LeT and JeM in BRICS joint statement bound to raise the hackles of Pakistan.

The crucial meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Xiamen has raised hopes of ending the nine-week-old Doklam standoff. 

The discussions between the two leaders lasting more than an hour on Tuesday (September fifth) was “forward looking” about the Sino-Indian relationship, observed Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar. Modi and Xi desired that the defence and security personnel must maintain strong contact and cooperation ensuring that the sort of situation that arose in Doklam did not recur.  

On its part the Chinese Foreign ministry said Xi told Modi that Beijing and New Delhi should stick to the basic judgement that the two sides constitute opportunities instead of posing threats to each other. It was hoped India views China’s development in a correct and rational way and let the world know that peaceful coexistence is the only correct choice for the two countries. 

This was a reaffirmation by the two leaders of the understanding reached during the Astana summit in June this year to build mutual trust and respect for maintaining peace and tranquility at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). 

India has had notable diplomatic gains at the Xiamen summit in countering terrorism which was on the BRICS agenda. Being Pakistan’s all weather friend, China agreeing reference to LeT and JeM in the joint statement is bound to raise the hackles of Islamabad. 

It comes at a time when US President Donald Trump has pointedly asked Islamabad to cease providing safe havens forthwith to the two groups and others.  In any case Beijing has compounded matters for itself by opposing Mazood Azhar’s designation as an international terrorist by the United Nations. That the BRICS joint statement finds no mention of Beijing’s much touted ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative as well as its stand on the South China Sea is not surprising. 

Simultaneously, China is seeking to enlarge its leadership in the BRICS grouping to countries like Thailand, Mexico, Kenya and Egypt among others. In any case its expansionist design is well known. The significance of BRICS to India cannot be undermined coupled with the need to keep China involved multilaterally. Impartial observers emphasise the delayed meeting of the Special Representatives must be convened encompassing the problems connected with the Sikkim boundary as well as the India-China-Bhutan trijunction.  It is imperative that the BRICS decision on terrorist groups like the LeT and JeM are implemented in keeping with the desire of the BRICS leaders. 

And it is indeed crucial that the outcome of the India-China bilateral discussions are concretised. To prevent Doklam type of incidents in future, there is a felt need for a new mechanism. At the same time New Delhi cannot lower its guard amid apprehensions that transgressions by the PLA will not recur. With the Chinese Communist Party Congress scheduled next month in October, the hosts could not have afforded anything but a successful BRICS summit. 

Informed sources said the clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Doklam makes it necessary for the two armies to sort out issues. The Indian Army believes apart from the LAC being properly demarcated, necessary CBMs (confidence building measures) have to be put in place. 

The number of points of contact have to be increased for having regular contacts along with establishing a hotline between the two Armies. Areas in Ladakh are also under dispute. Lately there have been incidents of intense violence not evidenced in the past having the portends of leading to a breach of trust among the local military Commanders. Doubts can be removed when the LAC is demarcated properly and all doubts about its alignment is dispelled.  

The world is watching the on-going ‘Rohingya Crisis’ in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, the epicenter of the tension. As of now, more than 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims have been affected and thousand stranded and forced to leave their homeland. About 73,000 thousand Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since 9th October after an insurgent group attacked Burmese border police posts, charging a crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rapes. The Rohingyas were also accused of gangrape and murder of Buddhist woman in Rakhine province.
Myanmar Military has said that more than 400 Rohingyas have died in the violence in Rakhine region. Buddhist-majority Burma calls it ‘ethnic cleansing’, while Rohingya human rights activists countered that as many as 1,000 civilians have been massacred by the government soldiers. Over 2,625 houses have been burnt down. The Telegraph UK reported that new satellite imagery depicts the collateral destruction of a Muslim village, and raised serious concerns about level of devastation in Northern Rakhine state may be far worse than originally thought. 
Rohingyas are considered as the most ‘persecuted’ Muslims in the world. The de-facto Leader and state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi is now on target of many human rights organization as she is the flag bearer of peace in the world. The Nobel peace prize laureate is now being criticized by many Islamic countries for not standing against the brutality on the Rohingyas Muslims. The government has blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the insurgent pact that launched attacks on Myanmar military check posts one week ago. 
Meanwhile, an estimated of 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in India, are illegal immigrants. Now the government has planned to deport all of them. But deporting them back to the place where they fled from doesn’t seem a very safe option for the Rohingya Muslims. Union Minister of state for Home Affairs Kiran Rijiju said, “As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants. They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is an illegal immigrant will be deported”. In a major setback to the Rohingya Muslims, the Burmese government has cut down all the aids provided by the United Nations, including refugee camps, food, sanitation and other basic amenities. Now the world awaits for the next update on Rohingya crisis but the roots of this turmoil lies in the history of Myanmar which has different versions. 
Why This Crisis and Who are Rohingya Muslims
The Buddhist-majority government of Myanmar framed new citizenship laws in 1982 after getting independence from the British rule. Close to 90% of the Myanmar population are Buddhists. Myanmar never could accept the Rohingyas as part of their culture and ethnicity. For the last 35 years, they have been living technically homeless and stateless. Only 40,000 Rohingyas are treated as citizens in Myanmar.
Rohingya Muslims, called as the Boat People, claim that their ancestors have lived here before 1948. So technically they should be acknowledged as the citizens of Myanmar. The Myanmar government in this regard asks them to provide documents dating back 1823 to prove it. Myanmar government considers the Rohingyas as Bengali as they were brought to Burma during British Burma time. British went back, may be forgotten, left these people behind. 
When British left India, Rohingyas wanted the Rakhine state to be merged with Eastern Pakistan (Bangladesh). They approached Mohammad Ali Jinnah with this request. Jinnah refused the request quoting it as an internal matter of Myanmar.Deprived and left aloof, Rohingyas concentrated at Rakhine and Myanmar remained hostile to this group. The government didn’t grant their citizenship rights and also voting rights. In 2012, in a skirmish between Rohingya Muslims and Burmese, at least 100 Rohingyas were killed. It led to sense of hatred among the Rohingya Muslims and the formation of ARSA. On 25th August, they launched an attack on Myanmar police posts killing more than 15 policeman and 15 civilians. This escalated the tension between them leading to ‘ethnic cleansing’ by Myanmar army. Houses were burnt, thousands of Rohingyas have been persecuted and many fled to the neighboring border of Bangladesh in search of refuge.Dhaka now refused to accept more refugees citing their over population crisis. Prime Minister Sheikh Haseena said to BBC, “We are already an over populous country, cannot afford more. It is a matter of national security.”
Nobel Laureates Condemns Aung San Suu Kyi
Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is being widely criticized for her stand on the Rohingya violence. She has said, “We have to separate terrorists from the civilians.”  She has defended the governments stand at many occasions. Now her fellow Nobel laureates have condemned her to be idle on this violence when the world awaits her strong revolutionary remark which she is known for. Desmond Tutu has appealed Suu Kyi to end the violence against her country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. The 85 years old archbishop said in heartfelt letter to Suu Kyi, “I am now elderly, decrepit and formally retired, but breaking my vow to remain silent on public affairs out of profound sadness”. He further criticized the Nobel laureate in the strongest words, “Your emergence into public life allayed our concern about violence being perpetrated against members of the Rohingya. It is not ethnic cleansing, it is genocide.
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai also condemned Suu Kyi for her vow of silence on the Rohingya violence. She urged the global community to intervene to protect the Myanmar Minority Muslims. “We need to wake up and respond to it- and I hope Aung San Suu Kyi responds as well,” she further resorted.Modi’ Visit to Myanmar and India’s Stand on Rohingyas
Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Myanmar but it seems that he didn’t touch the volcano of Rohingyas violence. He also stated that this is an internal matter of Myanmar. State Minister Kiran Rijuju has cleared that India is not bound to accept any international law when there is internal national security is concerned. He also slammed the international organizations to criticizing India for ‘harsh’ policies.  He added, “We cannot throw them in Indian Ocean or shoot them to deport, we are identifying them to deport.”
Most of the Rohingyas in India are registered under United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC), known as UN refugee agency. The Centre has stated that it has started the deportation process for Rohingyas but Aung San Suu Kyi has said that it is not going to be easy to Myanmar to accept these Rohingyas back in Burma. Rohingyas are mostly concentrated in Jammu & Kashmir. Few extremist organization and the separatists are alleged to provoke and brainwash these refugees.
Now the ‘Jews of the East’, the Rohingyas, are being read and watched by the world but despite so much of writing, criticism and uproar, the violence is increasing in Myanmar. The world is looking towards the East criticizing the crisis but, ironically, unwilling to open its doors to welcome the Rohingya Muslims. 

NEW DELHI: Civil Aviation Ministry on Friday unveiled new tougher rules to tackle on-board disruptive and unruly behaviour by air passengers. 

Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju said that the new rules will allow for the formation of a national, “No Fly List” of such unruly passengers. He said the promulgation of the No – Fly List in India is unique and first-of-its-kind in the world. 

Emphasizing the Government’s commitment for ensuring safety of air passengers, Mr. Raju said the concept of the No-Fly List is based on the concern for safety of passengers, crew and the aircraft, and not just on security threat.

Unruly behavior of passengers at airport premises will be dealt with by relevant security agencies under applicable penal provisions. The revised rules will be applicable to all Indian airlines on both domestic and international carriage of passengers. The CAR would also be applicable to foreign carriers subject to compliance of Tokyo Convention 1963.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said that the new rules have been promulgated after a lot of deliberation and consultation with all stakeholders. 

The revised rules define three categories of unruly behavior – Level 1 refers to behaviour that is verbally unruly, and calls for debarment upto three months; Level 2 indicates physical unruliness and can lead to the passenger being debarred from flying for upto six months and Level 3 indicates life-threatening behaviour where the debarment would be for a minimum of two years.

The complaint of unruly behavior would need to be filed by the pilot-in-command. These complaints will be probed by an internal committee to be set up by the airline which will decide the matter within 30 days. 

The airlines will be required to share the No-Fly list, and the same will be available on Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) website. 

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of India have signed an agreement to improve incomes and strengthen drought resilience for 165,000 farming households in the five driest districts in Andhra Pradesh.

The total cost of the project is US$148.8 million of which IFAD will provide $75.5 million.

“The project aims to build smallholder farmers’ adaptive capacity to drought. It will also help farmers shift to more diversified yet profitable cropping systems which require less water, as well as to diversify income and food sources by integrating small ruminants into farm production systems,” said Rasha Omar, Country Director and Representative, IFAD.

The southern region of Andhra Pradesh is one of the areas in India that is most vulnerable to changes in climate patterns. For example, rainfall is low and unreliable, with frequent droughts. Soils have low water-holding capacity and groundwater is depleted. Soil fertility is poor and smallholder farmers often do not have access to improved and drought tolerant seed varieties. In the past, farmers have not had access to the information and techniques that would help them adapt to changing weather conditions and secure food for their households throughout the year.

The new project will help farmers to produce drought-tolerant crop varieties, manage soil fertility and moisture, and access weather information. It will also introduce practises such as harvesting and storing rainwater, managing rangelands to prevent overgrazing, and establishing backyard poultry-raising. The project area will include Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool (in the Rayalaseema region) and Prakasam.

A specialized United Nations agency and international financial institution, IFAD has financed 28 rural development programmes and projects in India since 1979, with a total IFAD investment of $1 billion or $2.75 billion when co-funding from the Indian government and others are included. These projects have directly benefitted more than 4.5 million rural households. The India country programme is IFAD’s largest and India is a leading contributor to IFAD and a permanent member of IFAD’s Executive Board.

IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided about US$18.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached some 464 million people. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency based in Rome – the UN’s food and agriculture hub.

Antibiotic resistance is a major public health threat in India. A high burden of infectious diseases, unregulated sale of antibiotics, financial incentives for healthcare providers to prescribe antibiotics, patient expectations, rising incomes, and limited public health response have helped drive the emergence of resistance, suggests an article in The BMJ, a leading international medical journal, that has published a special collection on antimicrobial resistance. The series has been brought out in collaboration with the WHO (South-East Asia) Region. The article, authored by Manish Kakkar and colleagues discusses factors contributing to antibiotic resistance in India, and examine policy initiatives to address it. Resistance to commonly used antibiotics is increasing. This complicates clinical management, and newer, more expensive antibiotics need to be used. Resistance to newer, broad spectrum drugs such as carbapenems, which are the antibiotics of last resort, has been seen in parallel with their increased use, the article says. Shigella has highest levels of more than 50 per cent to nalidixix acid, norfloxacin and ampicillin.Salmonella typhi is resistant to flouroquinolones and cephalospporins, chloramphenicol and trimethoprism sulfamethoxazole. The article suggests, Pseudomonas spp is resistant to imipenem (15 per cent), amikacin and ciprofloxacin (20 per cent each). It has high resistance to piperacillin-tazobactam (42 per cent), and meropenem (50 per cent). As many as 12 per cent samples carry the genes for New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1 (NDM-1), the enzyme that confers resistance. Acinetobacter spp has maximum susceptibility to colistin (99 per cent), followed by imipenem, and meropenem (53 per cent) and 13 per cent of samples carry the NDM-1 gene.   More importantly, the article suggests that there is a rising trend towards antibiotic resistance with rise in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus from 29 per cent in 2008 to 47 per cent in 2015; Carbapenem resistant isolates of Escherichia coli increased from 10 per cent in 2008 to 13 per cent in 2013 while Carbapenem resistant isolates of Klebsiella pneumonia increased from 29 per cent in 2008 to 57 per cent in 2014. In S typhi isolates, resistance to flouroquinolones has increase from 8 per cent in 2008 to 28 per cent in 2014 though resistance to antimicrobials that are not used commonly (trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, aminopenicillin) is decreasing.
The region is home to a quarter of the world’s population. Dr. Kamran Abbasi, executive editor of The BMJ said, “As our articles highlight, this region is probably most at risk of emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance.”
Several antibiotics are ineffective against common infections, resulting in prolonged, more severe infections, and deaths.
Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director of WHO-SEARO, highlighted multiple reasons for this. “Poor prescription practices, irrational use of antibiotics in livestock, and an overall lack of awareness have led to the present situation. A One Health approach is needed in which health, veterinary and agricultural sectors work together to address the issue,” she said.
The collection brings forth examples from Thailand, Indonesia, and India in developing national action plans to combat antimicrobial resistance. New ways to analyse the magnitude of antimicrobial resistance in each country and mechanisms for better surveillance using information technology are proposed.
“It is a critical situation requiring urgent action from the remarkable nations of the region. We hope that this collection of articles will inform national and regional responses to antimicrobial resistance and improve the health of people. The BMJ is committed to helping create a healthier world through our coverage of major challenges in international and global health,” said Dr. Abbasi.
The initiative is expected to bring together policy makers and governments to commit to urgent actions on this front, and invest in research for new antimicrobials and containment strategies. The collection will be launched at the 70th WHO regional meeting in Maldives and followed by a meeting with key stakeholders in Delhi, India at the end of September 2017.

Canada will host the Women Deliver Conference in 2019, which will bring over 6,000 world leaders, influencers, advocates, academics, activists, and journalists from more than 150 countries. The Conference will be held in Vancouver from June 3-6.

“Prioritizing the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women is not optional, but in fact, foundational to drive change and progress for all, and this is reflected in our new feminist foreign policy,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently while making the announcement. “Canada is proud to host the next Women Deliver Conference as a global convener to bring us all further in advancing human rights for women.”

The Women Deliver 2019 Conference – the world’s largest of its kind – will present new knowledge, promote solutions, and serve as a fueling station for accelerating action, including policy changes and investments, for the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women and achieving a more equal world.

This conference will come at a time when support for the empowerment of girls and women is more critical than ever in order to maintain and increase the gains in health, education, and economic participation of women, as well as close the existing gaps in reproductive rights and health care services that advances gender equality for women and girls in the developing world.

“At Women Deliver we believe that evidence, solutions, and action speak the loudest. They are what give hope and spur action to do better for girls and women,” said Katja Iversen, President/CEO Women Deliver. “Canada is showing strong political leadership for women’s health and rights, and we at Women Deliver are thrilled to have our fifth global convening in Canada, a country that is steadfastly dedicated to promoting gender equality at every turn.”

The Women Deliver 2019 Conference will engage a broad spectrum of voices, including indigenous populations, youth, and those impacted by conflict, with an additional 100,000 participants anticipated to be joining virtually. It will continue the momentum generated at Women Deliver 2016, held in Copenhagen, Denmark. That conference – one of the first major global conferences following the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – was attended by nearly 6,000 people from 169 countries. The conference presented more than 100 solutions to improve the lives of girls and women, and spurred action across the globe.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Katja Iversen encourage all to use this unique opportunity and make June 2019 ‘Women Deliver Month’ throughout Canada across all sectors – including arts, sports, and business; in every province and city – and show the world that women’s health and rights are core Canadian values.

As a leading, global advocate for the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women, Women Deliver brings together diverse voices and interests to drive progress for gender equality, with a particular focus on maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights. We build capacity, share solutions, and forge partnerships, together creating coalitions, communication, and action that spark political commitment and investment in girls and women.

More than 180 million people do not have access to basic drinking water in countries affected by conflict, violence and instability around the world, UNICEF.

“Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene. ”In countries beset by violence, displacement, conflict and instability, children’s most basic means of survival – water – must be a priority.”

People living in fragile situations are four times more likely to lack basic drinking water than populations in non-fragile situations, according to a recent UNICEF and World Health Organisation analysis. Of the estimated 484 million people living in fragile situations in 2015, 183 million lacked basic drinking water services.

In Yemen, a country reeling from the impact of over two years of conflict, water supply networks that serve the country’s largest cities are at imminent risk of collapse due to war-inflicted damage and disrepair. Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation.

In Syria, where the conflict is well into its seventh year, around 15 million people are in need of safe water, including an estimated 6.4 million children. Water has frequently been used as a weapon of war: In 2016 alone, there were at least 30 deliberate water cuts – including in Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, Raqqa and Dara, with pumps destroyed and water sources contaminated.

In conflict-affected areas in northeast Nigeria, 75 per cent of water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, leaving 3.6 million people without even basic water services.

In South Sudan, where fighting has raged for over three years, almost half the water points across the country have been damaged or completely destroyed.

“In far too many cases, water and sanitation systems have been attacked, damaged or left in disrepair to the point of collapse. When children have no safe water to drink, and when health systems are left in ruins, malnutrition and potentially fatal diseases like cholera will inevitably follow,” said Wijesekera.

In Yemen, for example, children make up more than 53 per cent of the over half a million cases of suspected cholera and acute watery diarrhoea reported so far.  Somalia is suffering from the largest outbreak of cholera in the last five years, with nearly 77,000 cases of suspected cholera/acute watery diarrhoea. And in South Sudan, the cholera outbreak is the most severe the country has ever experienced, with more than 19,000 cases since June 2016. 

In famine-threatened north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, nearly 30 million people, including 14.6 million children, are in urgent need of safe water. More than 5 million children are estimated to be malnourished this year, with 1.4 million severely so.

In the Indian context, preserving every drop of groundwater is critical to India’s water security.

The fresh water demands of a rapidly growing population have resulted in the decline of per capita availability of fresh water from 3,000 cubic metres to 1,123 cubic meters over the past 50 years. This is well below the global average of 6000 cubic metres.

Apart from access to safe drinking water for women and children at the household level, performance of services and institutions such as schools, health centers and anganwadi centers are also impacted. For example, the 2015-16 drought led to a severe drinking water crisis in most villages across 10 states in India, affecting the health and wellbeing of nearly 40 million children. An assessment conducted by UNICEF in nine drought affected states found that among villages that had almost become Open Defecation Free (ODF), about 60 to 90 per cent of the households had to resort back to Open Defecation due to lack of water.

Both floods and droughts result in disruptions in access to safe drinking water, adequate hygiene and sanitation. This further increases the risk of disease outbreaks, hence putting vulnerable children and women at risk. UNICEF is working with the Government to make communities more climate resilient and mitigate the impact of climate change.