Analysis - A costly thirst - FT.com
It is generally the poorest who pay most for what is one of the most essential of all natural resources. Water is in short supply for a large proportion of the world’s people: about 1bn lack access to clean water and 2.6bn have no sanitation. An estimated 5,000 children die every day from water-related disease, according to WaterAid, the London-based charity.
If the number of people lacking safe drinking water were halved, at a cost of about $10bn, the world would benefit by $38bn in annual economic growth, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
