|© UNICEF/HQ07-1136/Shehzad Noorani| |Girls wash their hands
outside a UNICEF-provided latrine in central Afghanistan.|
Access to improved water and sanitation facilities does not, on
its own, necessarily lead to improved health. There is now very
clear evidence showing the importance of hygienic behaviour, in
particular hand-washing with soap at critical times: after
defecating and before eating or preparing food. Hand-washing
with soap can significantly reduce the incidence of diarrhoea,
which is the second leading cause of death amongst children
under five years old. In fact, recent studies suggest that
regular hand-washing with soap at critical times can reduce the
number of diarrhoea bouts by almost 50 per cent. Good hand-
washing practices have also been shown to reduce the incidence
of other diseases, notably pneumonia, trachoma, scabies, skin
and eye infections and diarrhoea-related diseases like cholera
and dysentery. The promotion of hand-washing with soap is also a
key strategy for controlling the s