About 16 million Yemenis do not have clean water: UN report
YemenExtra
M.A.
A report by the United Nations stated on Sunday that 15 million and 700,000 people do not have access to clean water, while 14 million and 800,000 do not receive adequate health care.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that Yemen is struggling with a severe deterioration in health services and sewage systems in the wake of the three-year-old war in the country.
He noted that about 15 million people do not have access to adequate health care, and about 16 million do not have access to clean water and sanitation because of the disruption or damage to infrastructure.
He also explained that the failure to pay the salaries of about 30 thousand government employees working in the field of health for almost a year has massively affected the services, because of the absence of workers or reduced commitment to their work.
He said children and the elderly were the most victimized by the cholera epidemic in the country since April, which killed 1971 people and infected 498,000.
Moreover, he pointed out that 30% of deaths due to the disease are elderly and 25% are children, while the proportion of children suspected of infection is more than 41% of the total number of infected.
More than 60% of Yemen’s population is at risk of food insecurity, 7 million are severely food insecure and 2 million are severely malnourished, according to the report.