World Water Day-March 22

A crystal clear answer for reducing child mortality: clean water World Water Day – 22 March 2008 Water is vital for life -- but access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation in the developing world is often scarce. Globally, more than one billion people lack access to adequate clean water and over two billion need safe sanitation facilities. An inadequate water supply and poor sanitation can significantly contribute to the spread of water-borne diseases and under-five mortality, particularly in countries such as Vietnam, where the United Nations Children's Fund estimates that half of child deaths and disease can be attributed to drinking contaminated water as well as poor sanitation and hygiene. On World Water Day, ChildFund Australia is reminding Australians that while many of us are concerned about the impact of climate change locally, and how this affects our own water supply, life threatening water shortages continue to be an immediate and on-going threat in developing countries.