The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has warned that children living in South Asian countries are at risk due to worsening water scarcity in the region.
The majority of the most affected children reside in South, South East Asia, Central Asia, and some sub-Saharan countries, according to the UN agency’s report: “The Climate Changed Child”.
The revelation is alarming, as South Asia with its eight countries, is one of the worst-affected regions by climate change and amounts to one-quarter of the world’s children.
According to the agency, as many as 739 million children around the world are facing “high or very high” water scarcity — which is ascertained via composite measure of baseline water stress, seasonal variability, interannual variability, groundwater table decline, and drought risk.
A high Unicef Children’s Climate Risk Index reflects increased exposure to risks associated with water scarcity.
The report also highlighted that 436 million children are facing “extreme water vulnerability”, which is categorised as the double burden of high or very high water scarcity.
