U.N. Report Says 2.6 Billion People Lack Basic Sanitation
Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer United Nations (AHN)-A U.N. report says some 2.6 billion people in the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, lack access to basic sanitation, increasing the risk of diarrhea and other diseases fatal to children. In a study on water and sanitation in developing nations, UNICEF, the U.N. children's fund, concluded that U.N. goals could be met on clean water, especially in urban areas, but the same was not true for access to the crudest of toilets. The report, Progress for Children, surveyed available clean water and sanitation facilities from 1990 to 2004 and calculated which countries could meet goals set at a U.N. Millennium summit in 2000. These include cutting in half by 2015 the proportion of people without safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Overall, about 1.2 billion people, or an increase from 78 percent in 1990 to 83 percent in 2004, had access to drinking water, a figure that would meet the Millennium goals. The report also said more than 1 billion people were without clean water in 2004 from sources such as wells or springs, a number which may increase as the population grows. The lack of access to water is especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa, which represents about 11 percent of the world's population but almost a third of all people without access to safe drinking water. But even in North Africa and the Middle East, people living in arid r |
