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GENEVA - More than 100 million people in Europe, including the Balkans and the ex-Soviet Union, have no clean running water in their homes and thousands fall seriously ill each year as a result, UN agencies said today.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said 16 per cent of households in what they term the European region lack access to safe drinking water.
The problem, most prevalent in Eastern Europe and in remote areas, contributed to 170,000 cases of water-borne diseases across the region last year, they said.
Babies from six months to 11 months old were the most vulnerable to such diseases as viral hepatitis A, bloody diarrhoea and typhoid fever.
"We have children still dying because of diarrhoea in the European region. This is unacceptable," Roberto Bertollini of the WHO regional office for Europe told a news briefing in Geneva.
The UN agencies said waste water systems needed to be overhauled in remote areas, where many people drink and use water from wells that are contaminated by nearby toilets.
Climate change was also seen as a threat to western European water quality if it caused heavier rainfall and increased Mediterranean droughts and warmer temperatures in lakes, rivers and seas.
"This can lead to unexpected outbreaks of water-borne diseases, increased harmful algal blooms and the creation of environmental niches for previously unknown (organisms)," the agencies said.
- REUTERS
