Maternal Mortality in Kenya Related to Unsafe Water

This article offers a new twist on insight into the problem with rampant maternal/infant mortality rates in Kenya, Africa. While disease and lack of access to proper medical care contributes to these problems, the issue of access to clean water is often overlooked. The article cites that out of 160 hospitals in the country, around 120 do not have proper plumbing and safe water supplies for their patients. So while the few women who can even afford to enter a hospital to give birth under what they would assume are safer conditions may have doctors to care for her and her baby, she may be unintentionally exposing herself and her child to even more risk of disease from drinking unsafe water while in the hospital. Is access to clean water a basic human right? I say yes.    Lenna Jones

http://womennewsnetwork.net/2010/07/13/kenya-climate-change-water-crisis-impacts-hospital-maternal-care/