CAPE TOWN, Nov 9, 2006 (AFP) - A lack of access to clean water kills nearly two million children a year and stunts prospects for economic growth in the world's poorest countries, a new United Nations report said Thursday.
More than 2.6 billion people do not have access to proper sanitation and dirty water claims more lives than AIDS or conflicts, according to the UN's annual Human Development Report, released in South Africa.
"We cannot speak about development while people subsist without clean water and proper sanitation and thus become exposed to numerous preventable diseases," President Thabo Mbeki told dignatories at the launch in Cape Town.
"We have a duty to fight against domestic and global apartheid in terms of access to water," he said, referring to South Africa's former racially discriminatory system of government.
The report's chief author Kevin Watkins said 1.8 million children die each year from diarrhoea brought on by dirty water.
"This is five times the number of children dying from HIV/AIDS," Watkins told reporters.
"What is clear is that clean water and sanitation is just about the most important vaccine for improving public health and economic growth."
The report highlighted the public health situation in slum areas of Africa, including Kibera in Nairobi where rudimentary sanitation sees many residents resorting to 'flying toilets'.
"People defecate in plastic bags and throw them into the street because they have no other option," explained Watkins.
A lack of water and sanitation keeps children out of school, either from illness or being forced to walk long distances to collect household water.
Aside from the human costs and productivity losses, economic growth is stunted to the extent that it outweighs international aid.
UN Development Programme (UNDP) administrator Kermal Dervis said the global water crisis "is not one of physical scarcity, but one rooted in poverty and inequality".
"The crisis ... is the widespread violation of the basic human right to water," he said at the launch.
Ill-health associated with water deficits undermined productivity and economic growth and entrenched poverty, said the report.
Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands said "the primary cause of the water crisis ... is a shortage not of water but of political commitment and good water management."
Some 10 billion extra dollars (7.8 billion euros) would be required every year to achieve the UN's millennium development goals for drinking water and sanitation, he said, underlining that it was "only a fraction" of the aggregate world gross domestic product of 43 trillion dollars.
"So perhaps the issue is not that we lack the money. What it really comes down to is political and social commitment."
The report warned that access to water would likely become ever more problematic as a result of global warming.
"The livelihoods of millions of people will become more precarious as rainfall patterns become more variable and, in some cases, water availability declines."
The report found that development in sub-Saharan Africa has stagnated with no sign of improvement, mainly due to the effects of HIV/AIDS which has slashed 20 years off life expectancy.
The 20 lowest rated countries on the UN's human development index, topped by Norway, Iceland and Australia, were all from Africa.
Speakers at Thursday's launch underscored the need for fewer conferences on the topic and more action, commitment and funding.
"We have to translate our words into actions that make a difference in the quality of life of billions of poor people," said Mbeki.
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