1,000 children die daily from diarrhoea, says UNICEF

As the world marked the World Water Day on Sunday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that about 750 million people around the world still lack access to drinking water.

“The story of access to drinking water, since 1990, has been one of tremendous progress in the face of incredible odds,” according to the Head of UNICEF’s global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programmes, Sanjay Wijesekera, in a statement.

“But there is more to do. Water is the very essence of life and, yet, three-quarters of a billion people, mostly the poor and the marginalized, still, today, are deprived of this most basic human right,” Wijesekera said.

The statement added that “Some 2.3 billion people have gained access to improved sources of drinking water, since 1990. As a result, the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the percentage of the global population without access at that date was reached five years ahead of the 2015 deadline. There are now only three countries; Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea, where more than half the population do not have improved drinking water.