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水與饑荒──你要知道的4件事

2017-09-01

衝突、旱災、流離失所、疾病正引發大規模人道主義危機，導致也門、索馬里、南蘇丹、尼日利亞東北部2,000萬人面臨饑荒威脅，有近140萬嚴重營養不良兒童面對死亡威脅。

嚴重旱災對非洲之角造成巨大影響，饑荒危機正向周邊國家蔓延。超過100萬名南蘇丹難民逃離衝突，烏干達人口急速增長，引致資源嚴重短缺。衝突、氣候變化、環境退化、貧困等原因導致整個乍得湖盆地的居民流離失所。

饑荒讓人聯想到食物匱乏，但危機已逐漸發展，不僅包括糧食安全問題，還包括清潔食水、環境衞生設施、醫療保健等，特別是疾病防治問題。對於面對饑荒和糧食安全問題的兒童及家庭，水和環境衞生同樣重要。當中有4個原因：

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

在南蘇丹聯合州盧布奎村的緊急應變計劃中，婦女提着聯合國兒童基金會捐贈的水桶。

1. 衝突

衝突是造成4個國家出現饑荒的共同原因，令供水和衞生設施受破壞或摧毀。也門激烈戰爭持續兩年，導致城市供水系統損壞，各大城市的生命線幾近崩潰。在尼日利亞東北部受衝突影響的地區，自衝突爆發以來，75%供水和環境衞生設施被毀壞。南蘇丹戰爭持續超過三年，近半供水點被完全損毀。

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.

在南蘇丹朱巴郊區，17歲的阿邁爾推着手推車，放有一桶從水龍頭提取而未經處理的食水。

2. 旱災

氣候變化、旱災、洪水等極端氣候造成水源枯竭或受污染，威脅整個社區賴以生存的食水質量和數量。在水資源極度匱乏的地區，各家各戶要爭奪短缺或不安全的水源，居民被迫逃離家園，感染疾病的風險也隨之增加。索馬里2016年爆發嚴重旱災，導致人道主義危機迅速惡化，目前情況已蔓延到大部分地區。非洲之角其他國家也受到影響，特別是吉布提、埃塞俄比亞和肯尼亞。南蘇丹季節性旱災令人與動物之間的用水衝突加劇，導致原本短缺的水資源被過度利用。自1963年，由於氣候變化和人口壓力，西非乍得湖的水量已損失約90%，為該地區帶來嚴重糧食安全問題。

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.

兒童在也門首都薩那的撒比恩醫院裏接受疑似霍亂個案的治療。

3. 疾病和營養不良

不安全食水和被損毀的環境衞生設施可導致營養不良，或病情惡化。聯合國兒童基金會（UNICEF）緊急援助項目主任曼紐爾‧豐泰內表示：「營養不良兒童無論攝取多少食物，只要還有食水安全問題，他們的狀況就難以改善。」不安全食水會導致腹瀉，令兒童無法獲得生存所需營養，最終導致營養不良。營養不良兒童也更容易感染霍亂等水媒疾病。全球約有21億人無法獲得安全食水。

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

扎拉從位於尼日利亞邁杜古里巴卡西國的難民營為家裏取水。

4. 流離失所

當戰爭或旱災迫使人們離開家園，兒童及家庭更容易被虐待和受健康問題威脅。流離失所兒童只能使用不安全的食水。缺乏廁所的臨時營地成為疾病爆發熱點，脆弱的兒童更容易感染疾病，在逃亡過程中，往往沒有醫院和醫療中心。受饑荒影響4個國家中，共約830萬人流離失所。

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

年輕女子在索馬里加爾卡尤的國內難民營取水回家。

UNICEF如何提供援助

UNICEF正為受饑荒影響地區超過250萬人提供安全食水，幫助他們對抗饑荒。

為保護兒童的生命，UNICEF採取的行動包括：每天向流離失所者營地運送數千升水；為醫院和霍亂治療中心提供支援；修復城市大型供水系統和衞生措施等。

自年初以來，UNICEF在也門進行一系列救援工作，超過500萬人受惠，其中包括：供水網絡和廢水處理項目（例如為維持水處理和泵站運作提供燃料和電力供應）運營、水源氯處理、食水運輸、分發個人衞生用品包等。
在南蘇丹受霍亂影響的地區，UNICEF已挖出22個鑽孔，超過21萬人獲得安全食水。全國約有20.7萬人獲得環境衞生設施，61萬人獲得安全食水。
在尼日利亞東北部受衝突影響地區，UNICEF與伙伴攜手為約84.5萬人提供安全食水。很多食水、環境及個人衞生（WASH）工作人員要冒生命危險為有需要幫助的人提供基本服務。
索馬里有166萬人獲得臨時安全食水，超過89萬人獲得個人衞生用品包，對預防疾病傳播十分重要。

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