Millions without clean water

A United Nations report has revealed millions of people world wide have no access to safe drinking water.

The new GLAAS Report, which is published by UN Water and the World Health Organization, found funding for the provision of water services in poor countries has fallen by nearly 40 per cent in the past decade.

It says 900 million people have no access to clean water while 2.6 billion people do not have adequate sanitation.
 

It found that unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and lack of hygiene is claiming the lives of 2.2 million children under the age of five each year.

The report also highlights the link between clean water and other sectors of development, explaining that the battle against poverty and ill health could be lost if countries continue to neglect their water and sanitation sectors.

'Uncomfortable truth'

However many of the countries that are most in need of financial aid are not easily invested in.

UNICEF's Clarissa Brocklehurst explained: "It's an uncomfortable truth that the countries that are most in need are the most difficult to invest in. Countries like Liberia, or Sudan - they are not donors' darlings."

The report states that the provision of improved sanitation and drinking water could reduce dangerous diarrheal diseases by nearly 90 per cent, and urges developing countries and donors to spend more on these areas.

The United Nations say their Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 is at risk of not being met if countries and donors do not demonstrate greater political commitment to sanitation and drinking water.
 

Dr Robert Bos from the World Health Organization