The head of UNICEF urges leaders to participate in the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan to scale up the financing of climate plans that protect children. Over 420,000 children in the Amazon basin have been left stranded by “dangerous levels” of water shortage and drought across three nations.
An unprecedented drought last year is hardest hitting Indigenous and other communities in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru that depend on boat connections, the UN Children’s Fund said on Friday in the run-up to COP29, which will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a Thursday statement, “We are seeing the destruction of a life-support system that families depend on for food, water, medical care, and schools. “
“We have to dampen the impact of extreme climate disasters to protect children from today into the future. The health of the Amazon is a barometer of the health of us all.
The UN agency called on leaders to implement critical actions, such as “a dramatic increase” in climate financing for children.
It warned that the resultant food insecurity in the Amazon increased the risk of child malnutrition, with less access to drinking water, spurring a rise in infectious diseases among children.
Low water levels have forced the closing or inaccessibility of over 1,700 schools and 760 medical clinics in Brazil’s Amazon region alone.
In Colombia’s Amazon, at least 130 schools have suspended classes due to insufficient drinking water and food. In Peru, more than 50 clinics are inaccessible.
