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[SANTIAGO, 10 January 2007] - Some 60 million Latin American citizens under the age of 18 lack drinking water in their homes, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said this week. Children under 5 years old are most affected by the problem, with some 21 million lacking a proper water supply, leading to the high rates of infant mortality and illnesses that affect this group in the region, ECLAC said.
In rural areas, proper access to drinking water is unsatisfied for six out of 10 children under age 5. Nicaragua, Honduras, Bolivia and Mexico are particularly affected by the problem, due in part to high birth rates by poor families in those countries. The report also said almost half the population aged 0-18 has no access to proper sanitation or sewage, worsening their situation even more. In Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay the rate is as high as two-thirds of all minors. The figures suggest there are more poor children in the region today than in 1980, according to a study by the UNICEF titled Child Poverty in Latin America. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates some 30 million children in the region suffer from hunger and 9 million are malnourished. In Brazil, however, the situation has improved in recent years, helped by government policies, UNICEF and ECLAC studies said. Paradox The paradox is that child poverty remain at similar levels to 1990, despite a period that has seen an economic recovery in the region and an increase in the extent of health and education services, the report said. The only Latin American countries that reduced child poverty since 1990 were Nicaragua, Peru, Paraguay and Chile. Children's problems were directly linked to the growing number of poor homes led by women, which make up one third of households, ECLAC said. Half of Latin America's poor are under the age of 18, and half of Latin America's children are poor, meaning in the future half the region's citizens are likely to have lived in poverty at some stage in their lives, ECLAC said. Poverty and extreme poverty decreased in Latin America in 2007. This was the first year in decades in which only one-third of the region's residents suffered from severe hunger or social deprivations, according to official figures. Some 190 million Latin Americans are currently poor, and 69 million of them do not secure food on a daily basis, ECLAC said. The unprecedented fall in the figures gave rise to hope that a further 100 million people could cease to be poor by 2015, according to ECLAC estimates. However, the inequality that affects Latin America - a region where 70 per cent of the citizens have income levels below their country's average - darkens the prospects. The richest 10 per cent of the population earns 30-50 per cent of household incomes in each country in the region. Further information pdf: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/171513.html