A/HRC/37/58 Children spend more time than adults playing in water bodies that are unclean, and they may be less able than adults to recognize or act upon environmental risks. 22 21. Between 1990 and 2015, as the number of people without access to an improved source of water fell from over 2 billion to approximately 660 million, the number of diarrhoeal deaths of children under 5 years more than halved.23 Some waterborne diseases, such as guinea worm, have been nearly eradicated. But much more remains to be done. At least one in every four people around the world still drinks water that is faecally contaminated. 24 Proper management of water sources is also critical to reducing vectorborne diseases such as malaria. Although the number of malarial deaths of children under 5 decreased by more than one half between 2000 and 2015, malaria still caused approximately 300,000 deaths in 2015, accounting for one in every ten child deaths in subSaharan Africa.25 3. Climate change 22. The Executive Director of UNICEF has stated that “there may be no greater, growing threat facing the world’s children — and their children — than climate change”.26 As explained in the 2017 OHCHR report (A/HRC/35/13), climate change contributes to extreme weather events, water scarcity and food insecurity, air pollution and vector-borne and infectious diseases, all of which already have severe effects on children. 23. For example, climate change increases the frequency and severity of droughts, and approximately 160 million children already live in areas of high or extremely high drought severity.27 Because children need to consume more food and water per unit of body weight than adults, they are more vulnerable to the deprivation of food and water, which can lead to irreversible stunting. 28 Water scarcity leads to the use of unsafe water, which in turn contributes to communicable diseases.29 24. Climate change also contributes to severe storms and flooding. More than 500 million children live in areas, mostly in Asia, that have extremely high likelihoods of flooding, and approximately 115 million live in zones of high or extremely high risk of tropical cyclones.30 Beyond the immediate dangers of death and injury, severe storms and floods cause a cascade of additional harms, including compromising safe water supplies, damaging sanitation facilities and destroying housing. Like droughts, floods can cause massive displacement. Children are particularly vulnerable during displacements, when the loss of connections to families, communities and protective services can increase their vulnerability to abuses including child labour and trafficking.31 25. Climate change has many other harmful effects on human health, including increasing the frequency and severity of heatwaves, compounding the toxicity of fossil-fuel pollutants such as ozone and contributing to wildfires. 32 Children are, again, more vulnerable to all of these effects. For example, UNICEF has indicated that “infants and small children are more likely to die or suffer from heatstroke because they are unable or lack agency to regulate their body temperature and control their surrounding environment”.33 Over the longer term, rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are likely to exacerbate the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and cholera,34 and contribute to food scarcity and undernutrition. WHO estimates that by 2030, 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Ibid., pp. 25–26. Ibid., p. 24. Ibid. Ibid., p. 38. UNICEF, Unless we act now, p. 6. Ibid., p. 22 Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., pp. 30 and 34. Ibid. Ibid., pp. 40 and 44 Ibid., p. 40. Ibid., pp. 48–52. 7