Over one third of children in Romania live in homes without toilet inside

Over one third of children in Romania live in homes without a toilet inside, the EU average being 2.6pct, and one in five children who do not have sanitary facilities in the household do not wash their hands after using the toilet, according to the Research Report "Child's welfare in rural areas", conducted in 2018 by the World Vision Romania Foundation.

At the same time, a report of the Ministry of Education and Research showed that, three years ago, 2,219 schools in Romania had outdoor sanitary facilities, without running water and without sewerage, and in 2018 as many as 1,489 schools and kindergartens were functioning with non-compliant toilets. At the beginning of last year's spring, 1,180 schools still had inadequate toilets.

In 2018, the population served by the public water supply system was 13,515,626 persons, representing 69.4pct of the resident population of Romania. In the rural area, only 35.3pct of the resident population was served by the public water supply system.

"Unfortunately, the lack of access to hygiene products and health education are problems that our country has been facing for a long time. The subject has been brought back to public space these days, given the coronavirus cases, but we are drawing attention once again on the need for long-term health education in Romania, a country where many rural schools still do not have running water and toilets inside. In even more schools and kindergartens, soap is non-existent and the situation perpetuates in the households of these children, who do not have the financial resources to buy basic products such as soap. Poor hygiene is a continuous source of illness in disadvantaged communities," said Mihaela Nabar, executive director of World Vision Romania. AGERPRES