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Côte d’Ivoire towns lack safe drinking water, adequate latrines, UNICEF says

Côte d’Ivoire towns lack safe drinking water, adequate latrines, UNICEF says

In Côte d’Ivoire, a West African country whose peace process is deadlocked, the towns and villages lack safe drinking water, while households in rural areas do not have adequate latrines, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today.

The problem with drinking water supplies stems from infrastructures that have either been over-exploited or cannot cope with urban population pressures as trained maintenance personnel leave, the agency said.

In rural areas about 65 per cent of hand pumps for water are out of order and more than three-quarters of the population lack adequate latrines, UNICEF said.

In the northern areas, military insecurity has made access to public services, health care and education difficult because government employees have been slow to deploy there, it said.