Access to water and sanitation services is essential for a safe return to school, in the context of the pandemic that the world is suffering today, UN Secretary General António Guterres stressed.

Through his official Twitter account, the highest representative of the United Nations recalled that washing hands is one of the most effective ways to limit the spread of Covid-19, but many education centers lack these water and sanitation services .

Last year, he noted, 43 percent of the world's schools did not have basic facilities for washing hands.

Guterres also shared on Twitter a link to the website of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), which delves into this situation.

According to a report from Unicef ​​and the World Health Organization (WHO), one in five schools in the world lacked facilities for hand washing and soap before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Currently, the report warns, 818 million children lack basic facilities to wash their hands in their schools, and this puts them at greater risk of contracting Covid-19 and other communicable diseases.

More than a third of those children live in sub-Saharan Africa. In less developed countries, he adds, half of the schools lack basic water and sanitation services.

Having facilities to wash hands with soap and water is a fundamental condition to reopen schools safely amid the pandemic, UNICEF and WHO stressed.

Both UN agencies emphasized that governments must balance the need to implement public health measures with the social and economic impacts associated with restrictions to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

In that regard, they indicated that there is clear evidence of the negative impact of prolonged school closings on children.

From Prensa Latina