An escalation in fighting is threatening access to safe water and sanitation for 3.2 million people, including 500,000 children, as well as the safety of workers risking their lives to repair damaged infrastructure in Eastern Ukraine.
During the last week of June, there were five separate, conflict-related incidents affecting water and sanitation facilities on Eastern Ukraine’s contact line, which divides Government and Non-Government Controlled Areas.
In the early morning of 29th June, shrapnel from exploding shells damaged water pipelines near Horlivka, along the Siverski Donets-Donbass channel, which supplies water to more than 3 million people on both sides of the contact line. The same evening, night-shift workers at the First Lift Pumping Station near Vasylivka, Donetsk Region, had to run for their lives to the onsite bomb shelter to avoid shelling.
“UNICEF once again calls for an immediate end to the indiscriminate shelling of vital civilian infrastructure and the protection of water workers. These women and men risk their lives to make sure children and families have access to clean water, a fundamental human right for all,” said UNICEF Ukraine Deputy Representative Laura Bill.
Since the beginning of this year, fighting in the conflict-affected areas has either disrupted or entirely halted the water supply for 3.2 million people for 29 days and has damaged water and sanitation facilities 58 times.
During the first five months of 2019, UNICEF and partners helped nearly 930,000 people access clean water on both sides of the contact line through water delivery, providing water treatment chemicals and by completing critical repairs and upgrades to what is an already fragile system.
So far this year, UNICEF’s $13.3 million USD appeal to provide emergency water and sanitation support in eastern Ukraine is 15 percent funded. UNICEF’s total $21 million USD appeal to respond to the humanitarian needs of children and their families in Eastern Ukraine is only 30 percent funded.
Original source: UNICEF
Published on 04 July 2019
