Water is life

HEALTHDirty Water Kills 4,000 Children a Day By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Sep 28 (IPS) - The statistics are mind-boggling: of the more than six billion people in the world today, over one billion have no access to improved drinking water - a basic necessity for human life - and about 2.6 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation. And according to the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, polluted water and lack of basic sanitation claim the lives of over 1.5 million children every year, mostly from water-borne diseases. "Despite commendable progress," says UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman, "an estimated 425 million children under 18 still do not have access to an improved water supply, and over 980 million do not have access to adequate sanitation." She said those who die are by no means the only children affected. "Many millions more have their development disrupted and their health undermined by diarrhoeal or water-related diseases."