UN in call for basic sanitation

Some 5,000 children die each day from diarrhoea-related illness

The number of people around the world without clean drinking water has halved since 1990, according to the UN.

But more needs to be done to provide basic sanitation, two UN agencies report.

Unicef and the World Health Organization said 2.5 billion people had inadequate or non-existent toilets, mostly in Asia and Africa.

The lack of facilities causes most of the 5,000 deaths each day of children from diarrhoea-related illness.

While the number of people practising open defecation has dropped by a quarter since 1990 to less than 18%, approximately 1.2bn people do not use toilets, which the UN agencies warn leaves them at great risk.

"Close to half the population in Southern Asia still practises open defecation," Clarissa Brocklehurst, Unicef's chief of water and environmental sanitation, told the BBC.

"We cannot expect child mortality rates to drop unless that figure improves, as access to clean water and sanitation underlie so many UN development targets."

Rural disparity

More than 90% of the world's population will have clean water by 2015, the report predicts.

If we want to break the stranglehold of poverty... we must address water and sanitation Dr Margaret Chan WHO director-general

At present, 87% of the world population has access to improved drinking water sources, it says.

But there are four times as many people in rural areas – approximately 746m – without improved water sources compared with urban dwellers.

"More and more governments are determined to improve health by bringing water and sanitation to their poorest populations," said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan.

"If we want to break the stranglehold of poverty, and reap the multiple benefits for health, we must address water and sanitation."