Dirty water 'kills 1.5m kids a year'

Dirty water 'kills 1.5m kids a year'

11.36, Thu Sep 28 2006

At least 1.5 million children under five each year die because of a lack of clean drinking water and proper sanitation, UNICEF has said.

A billion people worldwide - nearly half of them children - still drink water that is unsafe, risking diarrhoea-related illnesses and cholera.

However, the UNICEF report adds that since 1990 more than 1.2 billion people have gained access to clean drinking water.

The lack of access to water is worst in sub-Saharan Africa, which represents about 11 per cent of the world's population but almost a third of all people without access to safe drinking water.

Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Equatorial Guinea and Chad are worst hit, the report said.

But even in North Africa and the Middle East, people living in rural areas suffer from lack of water.

In Morocco more than 40 per cent of the rural population do not have access to proper drinking water.