Mozambique Floods Spur Unsafe Water, Child Malnutrition
“In Mozambique today, flooding is not just destroying homes, schools, health centres and roads. It is turning unsafe water, disease outbreaks and malnutrition into a deadly threat for children.
“The exceptionally heavy rains that we’ve seen during the first weeks of January have triggered a rapidly escalating emergency across vast swathes of the country. And the fact that Mozambique is now entering into its annual cyclone season creates the risk of a double crisis, with the most vulnerable impacted most severely.
“According to preliminary government data, more than 513,000 people have been affected, over half of them children. More than 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and are now sheltering in 62 temporary centres, many of them overcrowded.
“Access to the most basic services – such as clean water, healthcare, nutrition and education -is uncertain or unsafe in most impacted areas. In such conditions, children face higher risks of disease, interrupted learning, and protection risks, particularly for girls and adolescents.
”Waterborne diseases and malnutrition are a lethal combination. Even before the recent floods, almost four out of every ten children in Mozambique were experiencing chronic malnutrition. Renewed disruption to food supplies, health services and care practices now threaten to push the most vulnerable into a dangerous spiral, including risks of acute and severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form.
“Together with the Government and partners, UNICEF is responding with urgency.
”In Gaza, the most affected province, UNICEF is working in support of Government and with humanitarian partners to assess needs and begin distributing essential supplies to the most affected children and families. At the same time, we are working to get the most critical services – access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene, health services, education, child protection – back online.
“Further north, in Sofala Province, UNICEF has provided water, sanitation and hygiene supplies to the four most affected districts, enabling treatment of contaminated water at community and household level and already reaching at least 13,000 households.
”But the threat to children is growing.
”With river basins above alert levels, heavy rains continuing in some areas, and the cyclone season beginning, the number of affected children and families is expected to rise further in the days and weeks ahead. At the same time, damaged roads and infrastructure are making access to affected communities increasingly difficult.
”Timely support allows UNICEF and partners to scale up safe water, nutrition, health, education and child protection services before conditions deteriorate further. We can prevent disease, deaths, and irreversible losses to scores of children. But we need to act fast.
”Mozambique is a country of children and young people. More than 17 million are under 18, and the average age is just 17. When floods strike, as they have repeatedly over the past years, the youngest are hit hardest, both in the first days of an emergency and in the months and sometimes years that follow.
“For children in Mozambique, what happens in the coming days will determine not only how many survive this emergency, but how many can recover, return to school, and rebuild their futures.”
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/mozambique%C2%A0heavy%C2%A0floods-are-turning-unsafe-water-and-malnutrition-deadly-threat
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