The serious risk of disease outbreaks comes after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck a remote eastern region of Afghanistan on August 31 near the Pakistan border, destroying water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure.
“The earthquake has flattened home and taken too many lives, and now threatens to take even more through illness,” warned Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF’s representative in Afghanistan.
He said children who survived the earthquake are living in overcrowded displacement camps or makeshift shelters without access to toilets or clean water.
“This is a perfect storm for a health disaster” he added.
A leading cause of death
Acute watery diarrhea is one of the three types of the 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, killing over 400,000 children under the age of five each year.
The WHO says that clinical diarrhea is largely preventable through safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene – basic necessities that children in Afghanistan currently lack.
No access to clean 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 hand washing.
Four out of five communities now practice open defecation, as most latrines were crushed during the earthquake. Many survivors also lack access to essential hygiene items such as soap, making conditions ripe for disease outbreaks.
Acute watery diarrhea is widespread in the region and communities are also at risk of other waterborne diseases. Health centers are also reporting an alarming increase in various types of skin rashes, dehydration, says UNICEF.
Emergency preparedness underfunded
UNICEF provides WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services to over 60 countries, helping to prevent infection and disease in homes, schools, health facilities and public spaces.
The agency has installed temporary sanitation facilities in the earthquake-affected areas, distributed hygiene kits and deployed temporary emergency water transport while simultaneously repairing water supply systems.
However, only half of UNICEF’s $21.6 million appeal for its emergency response has been secured. The agency calls on donors to increase funding as soon as possible.
The World Food Program also faces a funding shortfall of $622 million over the next six months. The agency’s operation in Afghanistan is one of the six at risk, along with those in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. WFP’s aid in the country now reaches less than 10 percent of the millions of food-insecure Afghans in need.
A girl washes her face in a camp for people displaced by the earthquake in Kunar province, Afghanistan.
