 Figures recently released by
UNICEF paint a bleak picture of poor water supplies and sanitation practices
in rural Mongolia.
According to the UNICEF information,
only 20 percent of rural Mongolian homes have access to safe water.
This compares to 62 percent in Mongolian cities.
Additionally, only five percent
of rural homes have adequate sanitation, resulting in a variety of diseases
particularly dangerous to children, including dysentery and Hepatitis
A.
In most Mongolian families,
the responsibility for finding the day’s water for the household rests
with a child. According to a 2004 survey by UNICEF, the UN Development
Program and the World Heath Organization, more than a third of all the
country’s children spend three to four hours a day collecting water.
Mongolian children must brave
frozen rivers and wells in winter and haul containers long distances.
Many children miss school to accomplish this daily task, according to
UNICEF officials.
However, in recent years, churches,
foreign businesses and a variety of NGO’s have begun creating water
filtration systems to guarantee safe drinking water for rural Mongolian
residents.
The goal of these efforts is
to provide long-term, sustainable access to the most elemental of life’s
requirements – a concept very much understood by those living here.
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