Around 500 children under five years of age die every day in Africa because of inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene, the United Nations Children’s Fund said in a statement Tuesday.

In comments made ahead of a conference on financing for water sanitation and hygiene in the Senegalese capital Dakar, the organisation said that some 700 million people in Sub Saharan Africa lacked access to improved sanitation, while access to sanitation had increased only by 6 percent in the past 25 years.

It said that without immediate action, “the situation can drastically worsen within the next 20 years, as rapidly rising populations outstrip the efforts of governments to provide essential services.

“With children dying every single day, with millions stunted, with such a huge economic toll, it cannot be business as usual,” the organisation’s regional director for west and central Africa, Manuel Fontaine, said.

“The pace of progress has to speed up exponentially – and it’s going to take strong policies; robust financing; and a major shift in priorities among those who have the power to act,” Fontaine said. (Anadolu Agency)