UNICEF: Joel Madden and Tap Project for safe water

NEW YORK, 19 March 2009 As World Water Day 2009 approaches on 22 March, UNICEF-supported water, sanitation and hygiene projects are working to improve child health and survival in more than 90 developing countries. Globally, an estimated 125 million children under the age of five live in households without access to a safe drinking-water source. Even more people a total of more than 2.5 billion around the world are living without proper sanitation. UNICEF USA Ambassador and rock musician Joel Madden summed up the situation during a trip to one camp where nearly half of the children who die before the age of five are killed by diarrhoeal disease.

“I’m no better than they are,” he said after spending the day in Sam Ouandja camp. “I was just born in a country where I can have clean water, and that’s just the standard. We have [safe water] right in our house. They have to walk 15 minutes with a wheelbarrow to get water.”

To read the full story, visit http://www.unicef.org/wes/index_48818.html