National hand-washing campaign launched to reduce child mortality

Thousands of children’s lives could be saved each year simply by washing their hands, the government, the UN and other aid organisations said on Saturday. The organisations are aiming to bring about a massive behavioural change to cut sickness and death in the country by raising awareness about hygiene and water sanitation. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Ethiopia has the worst sanitation facilities in the world and tens of thousands of poor people succumb to water-related deaths. The country, which has a population of roughly 70 million people, also has the second lowest number of people with access to clean water in the world. A mere six percent have access to basic sanitation facilities, fuelling diarrhoeal and other water borne diseases. Less than a quarter have access to clean water. An estimated 1.8 million people die worldwide from diarrhoea, according to Water Aid Ethiopia. Up to 70 percent of transmissible diseases are due to dirty water or lack of sanitation. "Clean hands are the single most important factor in preventing the spread of disease," said Bjorn Ljungqvist, head of UNICEF in Ethiopia. "The simple habit of hand washing can help reduce the numbers of preventable diseases related to poor sanitation. "Hygiene cannot improve unless all individuals are educated about key practices such as hand washing, and are encouraged to make informed choices about their own behaviour." The UN has underscored the importance of safe clean water by calling for the number of people without clean water to be halved by 2015 – a Millennium Development Goal. By 2020, "significant improvements" should be made by developing access to sanitation for 100 million slum dwellers worldwide. The campaign, called "Your Health is in Your Hands", is targeting all regions in Ethiopia and is part of a global “WASH” movement aimed at improving sanitation. "Wherever you go in Ethiopia, there is water. It may not be clean but there is water," said Helen Pankhurst, head of Water Aid Ethiopia. "The less water there is and the more unclean it is, the more important the hygiene message becomes. "Washing your hands with dirty water is better than not washing your hands at all." The campaign is targeting rural communities through television and radio. Health centres and schools are also being targeted with information sheets in local languages. Pankhurst said the initiative should have been started "a long time ago", but said it was not too late to help cut disease if people are made aware of hygiene practices. The initiative has cost around US $500,000 and covers the entire country. As part of the campaign, some 100,000 bars of soap are to be distributed.