Each year, about 70,000 children die of diarrhoea in Pakistan. Simple, basic information and knowledge on hand washing or preparing oral rehydration salt (ORS) at home can save the lives of children.

About 20-25 million people of the country are at risk of exposure to arsenic contamination, speakers said yesterday at the inaugural ceremony of an international conference.

They also said there are more than 8,000 villages in the country which are at the risk of arsenic contamination.

The Pakistan government and the World Bank (WB) signed two agreements for polio eradication on Saturday.

The WB initially provided the total amount under both the agreements amounting to $67.84 million to the Health Ministry as a credit in 2007. However, under a buy-down arrangement the WB converted the credit into grant with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr Muhammad Rafiq Program Specialist, Unicef has said that Pakistan was still on the top of the list of polio endemic countries and there was need of collective efforts and political commitment to halt circulation of poliovirus in the society. He was addressing inaugural ceremony of March 2009 anti-polio round in Peshawar.

UNICEF has brought 60 MT of supplementary food (Unimix) to Jaffna, to be distributed to 4,500 moderately malnourished children (including those in the new IDP camps) in the Jaffna District over the next six months, the joint humanitarian update released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

A Project that originated at a boutique ad agency to help Unicef deliver clean drinking water to children in developing countries is expanding in its third year as more firms join to support the cause.

BHUBANESWAR: Jamal

LUCKNOW: What Arjun did to provide water to a thirsty Bhishma in Mahabharata, is being recapitulated by a group of scientists in Bundelkhand these days to quench the thirst of parched denizens. In their unique initiative, scientists have blown up sub-surface hard rocks with the help of dynamites, to create artificial water reservoirs around 140 feet below the earth in Jhansi district.