W.H.O report: Clean water fight still murky

W.H.O report: Clean water fight still murky.
MORE than two billion people lack access to clean and safe drinking water, according to a new report released by the World Health Organisation.
Although significant progress to ensure access to drinking water has been achieved, there is still a long way to go to ensure its quality — deemed free from pollutants and safe for drinking.
While many countries like India have made it a top priority, many others haven’t been able to emphasise the issue yet,” said United Nations Children’s Fund water, sanitation and hygiene chief Sanjay Wijesekera.
Some 159 million people, the report said, rely on untreated water from lakes and streams.
This puts lives, especially of young children, at great risk.
“Every day, 800 children under the age of 5 die from waterborne diseases like diarrhoea.
While the global drop in open defaecation from 20 to 12 per cent between 2000 and 2015 is a welcome fact, the rate of decline, at just 0.7 per cent every year, puts pressure on governments to do more.
Still, some countries like Ethiopia have combatted the issue of open defaecation successfully.
Similarly, Panama’s capital city has achieved universal access to clean drinking water, but other sub-regions in the country remain marginalised.

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