By Hamish Lindsay, UNICEF Wellington

Friday October 15 is Blog Action Day - an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day.

Currently there are 3,736 blogs in 125 countries with over 28,000 readers taking part. This year, the issue is how nearly a billion people worldwide lack access to clean water.

If you are a kid growing up somewhere where the water is dirty, you can catch a variety of diseases.

UNICEF estimates that up to 38,000 children die from water-borne diseases every week – and in some countries the chances of a child dying under the age of five are as high as 50 percent. Lack of clean drinking water is generally the cause.

So what’s being done? UNICEF has relatively new projects.

Children are most vulnerable as their bodies aren't strong enough to fight diarrhoea, dysentery and other illnesses. An estimated 38,000 children under 5-years-old die every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions. With coordinated support from developed countries, these deaths can be prevented.

UNICEF NZ currently supports two water projects in Tanzania and Laos. In Laos, the poorest nation in South East Asia, UNICEF is in the fifth year of a project to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene education to over 50,000 people - focusing on primary schools and vulnerable communities. Support for this project came from Kiwis and public donations were matched four to one by the NZ Government.

In Tanzania, UNICEF is completing a three year project funded with NZ public donations which were matched by Gareth Morgan. This project provided accessible clean, safe water and sanitation to over 15,000 people in remote areas of Tanzania. Community members have also been trained in maintenance of these systems and hygiene education to ensure long lasting benefits.

A benefit of the project is that water collection (traditionally by women and girls) now takes much less time, as the wells are close to people’s homes.  Lucia James (16), a schoolgirl preparing for her Standard Seven exams in a year, is delighted at the thought of having access to water at her doorstep.

“It will give me more time to study. Fetching water in the morning and evenings far from home is both tiring and risky, especially when I go alone,” she says.

To find out more about UNICEF’s work with water:

http://www.unicef.org.nz/page/52/tanzania.html

http://www.unicef.org.nz/page/13/waterandsanitation.html

To purchase a gift that will help one of these projects:

http://www.unicef.org.nz/inspiredgifts