by Our Foreign Desk

THE World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef have warned that at least 2.4 billion people have seen no improvement in sanitation despite millennium targets set in 2000.

The United Nations agencies said on Tuesday that over 946 million people were still relieving themselves outdoors, the vast majority of them being poor inhabitants of rural areas.

Those who make do without toilets continue to pollute water sources and jeopardise public health and safety for millions worldwide, the WHO and Unicef warned.

Such pollution contributes to malnutrition and childhood stunting, impairing 161 million children both physically and mentally every year.

“Until everyone has access to adequate sanitation, the quality of water supplies will be undermined and too many people will continue to die from waterborne and water-related diseases,” said WHO public health department director Dr Maria Neira.

The UN agencies were evaluating progress towards global targets set in 2000 for access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities, along with other goals in areas such as poverty, hunger, disease and inequality.

With those benchmarks set to expire this year while still largely unmet, the UN is trying to come up with a new set of “sustainable development goals.”

Past efforts to improve water and sanitation have produced some success, with 2.1 billion people gaining access to better sanitation facilities since 1990.

But diarrhoeal diseases, mostly caused by poor sanitation, still kill 700,000 children every year.

The world has done better in widening access to clean drinking water, with 2.6 billion gaining better access since 1990.

But 663 million of the world’s poorest have seen no improvement at all.