The role trees can play for a clean and healthy human habitat has been strengthened with a new study. Image source: Shutterstock (#552879889).
A global study that examined the health of 300,000 children and the quality of watersheds across 35 countries including Bangladesh, Nigeria and Colombia shows that trees around water sources improve sanitation to the same effect as installing indoor plumbing or toilets would, and in turn saves children from dying to diarrhoea. Just raising the number of trees by a third proved to result in far fewer fatalities.
“This shows, very clearly, how healthy ecosystems can directly support human health and welfare,” said co-author of the study, Brendan Fisher, a researcher at the University of Vermont in the United States.
U.S. foreign aid data spanning three decades was used for the study.
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