Poor sanitation in Afghanistan claiming thousands of lives

According to a recent United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) study, preventable diseases such as diarrhea and dysentery affect 25 percent of Afghan children under five each year, and kill about 600 every day, the U.N.’s IRIN news agency reported Wednesday.

Described in the same article were results of the State of the World’s Toilets 2007 report, which labeled Afghanistan as the very worst place for sanitation. About 92 percent of the population does not have access to proper sanitation. Apparently, it is not out of the ordinary for poorer Afghans to see human feces, sputum and even animal dung floating in the running water they use for drinking and bathing. These unsanitary conditions have lead to the spread of waterborne diseases.

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