One-third of Nigerian children lack access to water: UNICEF

ANKARA (AA) - Nearly one third of Nigerian children "do not have enough water to meet their daily needs,” the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Monday.

“According to new analysis released by UNICEF, 26.5 million Nigerian children are experiencing high or extremely high water vulnerability,” it tweeted.

Only nine liters of water on average is available to a Nigerian daily, while according to national standards, the minimum acceptable range should be between 12 and 16 liters per day, said UNICEF.

“All hands must be on deck to ensure that safe water is available #ForEveryChild, everywhere,” it said.

UNICEF also cited the 2020 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASH-NORM) report as saying that two-thirds (66%) of Nigeria’s population of over 209 million “use drinking water contaminated at the point of collection.”

Some 63% of the country’s population, meanwhile, “ingest contaminated water at the point of consumption within the household,” UNICEF’s report added.