Uganda’s first lady Janet Museveni has asked African Union leaders to improve access to safe sanitation and water if they want to tackle child mortality. She says Africa must address the issue of sanitation and water and ensure that the two are integrated into the health strategies of each and every government in Africa.
This will enable the continent to significantly improve the health of its children and mothers, Mrs Museveni adds.
If the citizens do not have access to safe sanitation, hygiene and clean water, child mortality and maternal health shall be undermined, she adds.
She says if leaders do not multiply and improve their efforts, improving child health will be challenging. She was addressing a press conference in Munyonyo, the venue of the 15th African Union Summit.
A communiqué issued Monday in Kampala by Mrs. Museveni on the sidelines of the summit, said: “Each day, 2,000 small Africans die from diarrhoea, while the use of toilets with all the hygiene and health conditions can reduce the mortality rate related to this disease by 90 per cent”.
The summit, in which about 40 heads of state and government are taking part, is centred on “maternal, neonatal and child health and development in Africa”.
The African heads of state are not making their first commitments in the sense of guaranteeing basic services in the medium term, the communiqué stressed, recalling the 2008 Summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, on water and sanitation.
“Within five years from its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the objective of reducing the number of victims of the lack of water and sanitation by half will not be achieved before the next 200 years south of the Sahara,” the communiqué lamented, quoting Yunia Musaazi of “WaterAid’s East Africa Policy and Advocacy Adviser”.
Source: Sunday Vision and Panapress, 27 July 2010
