UNICEF NZ (UN Children’s Fund)
Media Release

Clean, safe water luxury for many children, says UNICEF

Wellington, 19 March 2009. – The UN Children’s Fund is encouraging Kiwis to remember how lucky they are to have access to safe, clean water ahead of World Water Day on Sunday 22 March.

In many parts of the developing world children and families struggle to get by with poor quality water that contributes to diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, and typhoid. About 1 billion people around the world – many of them children – don’t have access to clean drinking water. Around 2.6b can’t access proper sanitation facilities.

UNICEF Executive Director, Dennis McKinlay, says that World Water Day provides an opportunity to celebrate the clean water we have in New Zealand, as well as reflect on water issues facing people in developing nations.

“In Zimbabwe, for example, the cholera epidemic sweeping the country has claimed over 4,000 lives.

“Almost 90,000 people have contracted the deadly water-borne disease in Zimbabwe since August. In addition, thousands of cholera cases have been reported in recent months in eight other countries in southern Africa.

“Worldwide, lack of clean and accessible drinking water is the second biggest killer of children under five. In Laos, for example, three quarters of the population do not have access to toilets and more than half drink unsafe water.

Mr McKinlay says UNICEF is supporting practical water, sanitation and hygiene programmes in Laos and Zimbabwe, and more than 90 other countries, providing simple, affordable and accessible interventions at community and household levels.

UNICEF’s Tap Project, which is running until 9 April in more than 300 cafes and restaurants around New Zealand, is raising funds for UNICEF water projects in Laos. People can donate at a participating café or restaurant, text TAP to 833 to make an instant $3 donation, or online at www.tapproject.org.nz

Water Events
Auckland: To further draw attention to water issues, an attempt will be made on the Guinness World Record ™ for the world’s largest ever water pistol fight. The event will be held at Western Springs, Auckland on Sunday 5 April. More than 2,671 participants are needed to break the current world record, set in Spain in 2007.

Wellington: UNICEF is holding a World Water Day Race at the Taranaki Street Wharf Precinct in Wellington, on 22 March, starting from 11am.

In exchange for a gold coin donation to UNICEF’s water related projects, teams will compete for prizes by moving water from one bath to another on Wellington’s waterfront. Wellington City Councillors Celia Wade-Brown and Paul Bruce will be racing at 1pm.

Wellington City Council Environment Portfolio Leader Councillor Celia Wade-Brown says clean water is essential for human health.

“I encourage Wellingtonians to conserve water and to think carefully about how often you water your gardens or wash your cars.

“It’s also important to keep oil and paint out of our drains. To find out more about how water gets from the sky to our taps and what happens after we ‘pull the plug’ come along to the World Water Day Displays at Taranaki Street Wharf.”

ENDS

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