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水与饥荒──你要知道的4件事

2017-09-01

© UNICEF/UN055942/Gilbertson

冲突、旱灾、流离失所、疾病正引发大规模人道主义危机,导致也门、索马里、南苏丹、尼日利亚东北部2,000万人面临饥荒威胁,有近140万严重营养不良儿童面对死亡威胁。

严重旱灾对非洲之角造成巨大影响,饥荒危机正向周边国家蔓延。超过100万名南苏丹难民逃离冲突,乌干达人口急速增长,引致资源严重短缺。冲突、气候变化、环境退化、贫困等原因导致整个乍得湖盆地的居民流离失所。

饥荒让人联想到食物匮乏,但危机已逐渐发展,不仅包括粮食安全问题,还包括清洁食水、环境衞生设施、医疗保健等,特別是疾病防治问题。对于面对饥荒和粮食安全问题的儿童及家庭,水和环境衞生同样重要。当中有4个原因:

A woman holds a UNICEF donated bucket during a Rapid Response Mission (RRM) in the village of Rubkuai, Unity State, South Sudan, Feuary 16, 2017. In 2017 in South Sudan, ongoing insecurity, combined with an economic crisis that has pushed inflation above 800 percent, has created widespread food insecurity with malnutrition among children having reached emergency levels in most parts of the country. In 2016, UNICEF and partners admitted 184,000 children for treatment of severe malnutrition. That is 50 percent higher than the number treated in 2015 and an increase of 135 percent over 2014. In Feuary 2017, war and a collapsing economy have left some 100,000 people facing starvation in parts of South Sudan where famine was declared 20 Feuary, three UN agencies warned. A further 1 million people are classified as being on the ink of famine. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) also warned that urgent action is needed to prevent more people from dying of hunger. If sustained and adequate assistance is delivered urgently, the hunger situation can be improved in the coming months and further suffering mitigated.  The total number of food insecure people is expected to rise to 5.5 million at the height of the lean season in July if nothing is done to curb the severity and spread of the food crisis. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) update released 20 Feuary by the government, the three agencies and other humanitarian partners, 4.9 million people – more than 40 percent of South Sudan’s population – are in need of urgent food, agriculture and nutrition assistance. Unimpeded humanitarian access to everyone facing famine, or at risk of famine, is urgently needed to reverse the escalating catastrophe, the UN agencies urged. Further spread of famine can only be prevented if humanitarian assistance is scaled up and
© UNICEF/UN053466/Modola

在南苏丹联合州卢布奎村的紧急应变计划中,妇女提着联合国儿童基金会捐赠的水桶。

1. 冲突

冲突是造成4个国家出现饥荒的共同原因,令供水和衞生设施受破坏或摧毁。也门激烈战争持续两年,导致城市供水系统损坏,各大城市的生命线几近崩溃。在尼日利亚东北部受冲突影响的地区,自冲突爆发以来,75%供水和环境衞生设施被毁坏。南苏丹战争持续超过三年,近半供水点被完全损毁。

Seventeen-year-old Amal pushes a wheelbarrow with a jerry can of untreated water from a tap on the outskirts of Juba, South Sudan, Friday 17 March 2017. “I don’t have to walk to the river any more, which means I have more time to study, but the water is still dirty, and I worry about my younger siblings getting sick when they drink it” says Amal, who fetches water every day. A worsening water crisis, fuelled in part by conflict and a deteriorating economy, is just one more challenge families in Juba face on a daily basis. In 2015, an estimated 13 percent of residents had access to municipal water, supplied mainly through a small piped network and boreholes – but this number is likely to have dropped following the violence that hit the city in 2016. For those without municipal access, water is mostly provided through private sector water trucking. Because they draw untreated water straight from the White Nile river, UNICEF, in coordination with the Juba city council, has been providing the trucks with chlorine to treat the water and reduce the spread of deadly waterborne diseases. There are more than 2,000 water tankers in the city, but as running costs continue to rise, so to does the price of water for customers. The lack of safe water means those living in the capital are at huge risk to the spread of deadly waterborne diseases, with children especially vulnerable, exacerbating a growing nutrition crisis. A cholera outeak which started in Juba in July 2016 has already killed 83 people and infected almost 4,500 others. Many of those who have been affected live in poor neighbourhoods, with little access to safe water and sanitation facilities.
© UNICEF/UN057031/Hatcher-Moore

在南苏丹朱巴郊区,17岁的阿迈尔推着手推车,放有一桶从水龙头提取而未经处理的食水。

2. 旱灾

气候变化、旱灾、洪水等极端气候造成水源枯竭或受污染,威胁整个社区赖以生存的食水质量和数量。在水资源极度匮乏的地区,各家各户要争夺短缺或不安全的水源,居民被迫逃离家园,感染疾病的风险也随之增加。索马里2016年爆发严重旱灾,导致人道主义危机迅速恶化,目前情况已蔓延到大部分地区。非洲之角其他国家也受到影响,特別是吉布提、埃塞俄比亚和肯尼亚。南苏丹季节性旱灾令人与动物之间的用水冲突加剧,导致原本短缺的水资源被过度利用。自1963年,由于气候变化和人口压力,西非乍得湖的水量已损失约90%,为该地区带来严重粮食安全问题。

On 12 May 2017 at the Sab'een Hospital in Sana'a, Yemen, patients suffering from severe diarrhoea or cholera receive treatment. Over 69,559 suspected cases of diarrhea have been reported so far across Yemen with 578 deaths as at 1 June 2017. In the last 24 hours alone, the numbers of suspected cholera cases have gone up from 65,300 to over 69,559 across Yemen. An average of 1100 children suffering from acute watery diarrhea are reporting to health facilities every day for the past two weeks across the war-torn country. In the last four weeks, the disease has claimed at least 578 lives of which nearly 40 per cent are children. The collapse of the water and sanitation system, barely functional hospitals and cash stripped economy means that 27.7 million Yemenis are staring at an unforgiving humanitarian catastrophe. There is a shortage of doctors and nursing staff, many of whom haven’t been paid for months as well as a shortage of medicines and IV fluid. UNICEF has flown in three aircrafts carrying over 41 tons of lifesaving supplies including medicines, oral rehydration salts, diarrhea disease kits, intravenous fluids that will treat over 50,000 patients. Over one million people across the country have been reached by disinfecting water tanker filling stations, chlorinating drinking water, disinfecting groundwater wells, cleaning water storage reservoirs at public and private locations, providing household water treatments and distributing hygiene consumables kits.
© UNICEF/UN065871/Alzekri

儿童在也门首都萨那的撒比恩医院裏接受疑似霍乱个案的治疗。

3. 疾病和营养不良

不安全食水和被损毁的环境衞生设施可导致营养不良,或病情恶化。联合国儿童基金会(UNICEF)紧急援助项目主任曼纽尔‧丰泰内表示:「营养不良儿童无论摄取多少食物,只要还有食水安全问题,他们的状况就难以改善。」不安全食水会导致腹泻,令儿童无法获得生存所需营养,最终导致营养不良。营养不良儿童也更容易感染霍乱等水媒疾病。全球约有21亿人无法获得安全食水。

On 13 March 2017, Zara collects water for use at their home in Bakassi IDP camp, in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. Four solar powered boreholes with 10,00 litre overhead storage for each borehole and 60 water taps are servicing 21,000 Internally Displaced Persons from Gwoza, Marte, Monguno LGAs. The prolonged humanitarian crisis in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency has had a devastating impact on food security and nutrition in northeast Nigeria, leading to famine-like conditions in some areas, according to a World Food Programme (WFP) situation report from late Feuary 2017. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) projects that by June 2017 some 5.1 million people in Nigeria will be food insecure at crisis and emergency levels. In 2017 in northeast Nigeria, in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, the three states most directly affected by conflict, 75 per cent of water and sanitation infrastructure in conflict-affected areas has been damaged or destroyed, leaving 3.8 million people with no access to safe water. Displaced families are putting enormous pressure on already strained health and water systems in host communities. With the ongoing disruption to basic services the likelihood of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea and cholera, is growing and children are worst hit in such conditions leading to increase malnutrition and mortality. One third of the 700 health facilities in the hardest-hit state of Borno have been completely destroyed and a similar number are non-functional. As at 15 March 2017, over the past 12 months, UNICEF and partners have provided safe water to nearly 666,000 people and treated nearly 170,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the three conflict-affected northeast Nigerian states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. As part of cholera preparedness, UNICEF and other WASH Sector partners are building the capacity of government and NGOs on cholera response and developing contingency plan
© UNICEF/UN057061/Abubakar

扎拉从位于尼日利亚迈杜古里巴卡西国的难民营为家裏取水。

4. 流离失所

当战争或旱灾迫使人们离开家园,儿童及家庭更容易被虐待和受健康问题威胁。流离失所儿童只能使用不安全的食水。缺乏厕所的临时营地成为疾病爆发热点,脆弱的儿童更容易感染疾病,在逃亡过程中,往往沒有医院和医疗中心。受饥荒影响4个国家中,共约830万人流离失所。

A young woman displaced from her home by the worsening drought fills containers with clean water to carry back to her new home in the internally displaced peoples camp in Galkayo, Somalia, Wednesday 12 April 2017. As of April 2017, the humanitarian situation in Somalia continues to deteriorate due to the severe drought, which started in the north in 2016 and is now affecting most of the country. Over 6.2 million people are facing acute food insecurity and 4.5 million people are estimated to be in need of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) assistance. The situation is especially grave for children. Close to one million children (under five) will be acutely malnourished in 2017, including 185,000 severely malnourished, which may increase to over 270,000 if famine is not averted. Severely malnourished children are nine times more likely to die of killer diseases like cholera / acute watery diarrhea and measles, which are spreading. The drought is also uprooting people, with more than 530,000 displaced since November 2016, adding to the 1.1 million already internally displaced (IDPs). This includes 278,000 new IDPs in the month of March alone, with 72,000 new arrivals in Mogadishu and 70,000 in Baidoa. In addition, the number of people crossing into Kenya is increasing. The rapid scale of displacement increases the risk of family separation and gender-based violence. Children are also dropping out of school, with 50,000 children reported to have stopped going to school, and an additional 40,000 at risk of being forced to interrupt their schooling. The Gu (April-June) rains are slowly unfolding, inging much needed relief to parts of the country. But the rains also spell danger for children. If they come in full they will inflict further misery on children living in flimsy, makeshift shelters made of twigs and cloth or tarps. If the Gu rains fail, and if assistance doesn’t reach families, more people will be forced off their land into displacement camps. Out
© UNICEF/UN061107/Knowles-Coursin

年轻女子在索马里加尔卡尤的国内难民营取水回家。

UNICEF如何提供援助

UNICEF正为受饥荒影响地区超过250万人提供安全食水,帮助他们对抗饥荒。

为保护儿童的生命,UNICEF采取的行动包括:每天向流离失所者营地运送数千升水;为医院和霍乱治疗中心提供支援;修復城市大型供水系统和衞生措施等。

  • 自年初以来,UNICEF在也门进行一系列救援工作,超过500万人受惠,其中包括:供水网络和废水处理项目(例如为维持水处理和泵站运作提供燃料和电力供应)运营、水源氯处理、食水运输、分发个人衞生用品包等。
  • 在南苏丹受霍乱影响的地区,UNICEF已挖出22个钻孔,超过21万人获得安全食水。全国约有20.7万人获得环境衞生设施,61万人获得安全食水。
  • 在尼日利亚东北部受冲突影响地区,UNICEF与伙伴携手为约84.5万人提供安全食水。很多食水、环境及个人衞生(WASH)工作人员要冒生命危险为有需要帮助的人提供基本服务。
  • 索马里有166万人获得临时安全食水,超过89万人获得个人衞生用品包,对预防疾病传播十分重要。
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