Addis Ababa — The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said on Sunday that over 250,000 children die every year from the easily preventable diarrhea in Ethiopia.

This was disclosed during the 2006 Sanitation Focus Year event launched in Awasa by the Ethiopian Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) movement.

UNICEF, a global body working on the lives of children worldwide raised its concern in the event over the poor water and sanitation services as" Constraints to development".

"Poor water and sanitation services are constraints to development as manifested by high level of stunting health related problems among children under 5 years of age, high rate of morbidity and mortality as well as reduced learning capability, low academic performance of children through illness and early drop-out rate of girls,"UNICEF said.

Mr. Bruno Maes, Water and Sanitation expert at UNICEF Ethiopia told The Daily Monitor during the launching ceremony that water; sanitation and hygiene problems were the major causes of morbidity in Ethiopia where women and children were being affected at an alarming rate.

"In Ethiopia, a child develops five episodes of diarrhea in a year. It is estimated that over 250,000 children die every year from such causes. We all are aware that there needs to be a major paradigm shift in the way that the water supply, sanitation and hygiene services are being handled, if we are to achieve the MDGs and accelerate the development efforts," Maes said.

Mr. Bruno added that the 250,000 children who he said were dying annually by diarrhea could be prevented by improving the services among the public.

Accordingly, it is possible to reduce diarrhea by 19 % by the provision of safe water supply, by 36 % through adequate sanitation, by 45 % through improved hygiene and 60 to 70 % reduction in diarrhea cases through the combined implementation of WASH.

The World Bank, UNICEF, Ethiopian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Water Resources are working jointly with other concerned organizations to improve the current poor sanitation in Ethiopia, it was learnt.

Health experts said that lack of adequate toilets/latrines was aggravating the problem of sanitation in Ethiopia. According to available information, only 29 % of the estimated 74.5 million Ethiopian population have access to toilets.

Kebede Worku, Ethiopian State Minister of Health said that a lot still remains to be done to improve the utilization of toilets among the community in order to reduce the current child death, and disease burdens on the kids.

"We still need to teach people to bring behavioral change in using latrines, and reduce the death rate that caused by diarrhea and related problems. Diarrhea accounts 20 % for infants' mortality --under 5 years children," the State Minister said.

" WASH is an important tool for ensuring the basic requirements for children to grow and learn," he added.

The WASH Movement in Ethiopia aims to promote improved behavior and social change on water, sanitation and hygiene related issues through intensive mobilization and promotional activities.

In the previous year, the Ethiopia WASH movement focused on promoting behavioral changes through correct hand washing practices - using soap or ash - and hand washing at appropriate times - before eating or cooking and after defectation.

To promote the 2006 Sanitation Focus Year, the Ethiopia WASH movement has said will focus on the following messages: - Let us make it our culture to use a latrine for our own health and for our dignity.

- Those who keep their latrine clean are concerned for their family's health.

- Faeces is dangerous for human health, so dispose of it immediately.

- The material we use for anal cleaning should be disposed of carefully, as it will cause disease if flies land on it.

- When you clean your children or yourself after defecation, you have two options for hand washing.