If Mauritius and Seychelles are excluded the figures drop to 71 per cent and 39 per cent respectively. The gains most countries have made recently in provision of drinking water are already being eroded according to the latest vulnerability assessments carried out this year. This makes the impact of drought especially severe, as many are forced to make use of increasingly unsafe , frequently contaminated water sources, both in rural and urban areas. Water shortages and poor hygiene practices are already having serious health effects on communities, with an ever-increasing risk of epidemics. Five countries have reported cholera incidence in 2016. As the dry season continues in southern Africa countries, so water availability is likely to deteriorate further. Angola Mozambique DRC Madagascar Tanzania Zambia Swaziland Zimbabwe Lesotho Malawi Namibia South Africa Botswana 100 JMP 2015 VAC 2016 Mauritius 0 80 20 40 60 80 100 Source: UNICEF, WHO, SADC 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Access to safe drinking water Seychelles Access to potable water 90 increase in WASH needs. Lesotho Malawi Moz. Namibia Swaziland Zambia Zimbabwe Source: UNICEF, WHO, SADC Critical water shortages have impacted rural and urban communities’ access to water and sanitation, affecting nutrition, health and access to education. Children are reported to be dropping out of school and waking up in the middle of the night so that they can find and collect clean water. Water shortages are hitting children hardest; diarrhoea caused by unclean water can kill small children quickly, while repeated episodes of diarrhoea in children under age 2 severely affects their growth, resulting in stunting with significant long lasting effects on cognitive development and general health and growth. Hygiene practices such as hand washing are negatively impacted by water shortages increasing the disease risk. Many women and children are at increased risk of various forms of gender-based violence (GBV) directly related water shortages. In the coming months, we can expect to see a further WASH interventions to combat the effects of the drought will aim at ensuring affected populations’ access to clean/safe water, sanitation and improved hygiene in its own right; as well as providing critical support to other sectors’ response activities i.e. ensuring adequate WASH services for nutrition; therapeutic feeding in health centres and communities, and school feeding programmes within the education sector. Health facilities are the preventative and curative centres for affected communities and hence they must have water supply on a daily basis to ensure that those affected at least have a place to receive treatment for diarrhoea; and any other drought-related illnesses. Global studies show that children are community agents and therefore they can influence the behaviour of the family due to the information and practices instilled at school. It is paramount to therefore ensure daily water supply to schools and to conduct hygiene sensitisation and message distribution using schools and clinics as community gateways for hygiene communication. RECOMMENDATIONS Sector interventions will focus on immediate lifesaving activities but also acknowledging that most emergency WASH actions should have longerterm outcomes and so lead directly to recovery and 19