DUSHANBE, February 14, Asia-Plus  - Power cuts and severe water shortages threaten the lives of three-and-a-half million children, press release issued by UNICEF CO Tajikistan said.  

UNICEF has dispatched emergency supplies worth more than $200,000 to Tajikistan to meet the immediate life-saving needs of children and women. Tajikistan is facing the harshest winter in three decades and is in dire shortage of water and gas supplies.  The combined energy shortage and severe cold weather has a significant impact on the health of children under-five, particularly newborns.

“Our immediate concern right now is to urgently provide life-saving measures and assistance to children and women,” said Ruth Leano, UNICEF’s Deputy Representative, in Tajikistan.  Of the estimated seven million people affected by the crisis, approximately half are children, and close to one million are children under the age of five. Vulnerable to cold, hunger and trauma, children and women in the country require urgent life-saving assistance to be able to survive.

In Tajikistan, about 120,000 of 180,000 newborns are born in rural areas. Premature babies account for almost 15 per cent of newborns. These are at risk from hypothermia.  Children in all 3,800 primary schools and 400 kindergartens learn in extremely difficult conditions, as most schools have almost no, or very limited, heating.

Since the onset of the severe weather and the energy shortage over the past weeks, UNICEF has quickly dispatched emergency health kits, jerry cans, baby blankets, hygiene sets, high protein biscuits, and generators to child and maternity hospitals and residential child care institutions.

Tajikistan’s Ministry of Health reports that acute respiratory infections including pneumonia have increased by two-fold and maternal mortality has also doubled in comparison with the same period last year. There are reports of some newborn deaths in maternity departments of hospitals owing to electricity cuts and the cold weather.

UNICEF works closely with non-government organizations and joins other UN agencies in a joint appeal.  UNICEF is in particular need of funds to ensure the survival of children, and to assist those who have been worst affected.