Every year, unsafe water, coupled with a lack of basic sanitation, kills at least 1.6 million children under the age of five years. More than eight times the number of people who died in the Asian Tsunami of 2004! At the beginning of the Water for Life decade, 1.1 billion people did not have access to an improved source of drinking water. 2.6 billion people, more than 40% of the world population, do not use a toilet, but defecate in the open or in unsanitary places. If the current trend persists, nearly 1.7 billion rural dwellers will still not have access to improved sanitation by 2015. However, in 2004, urban sanitation coverage was more than double the rural sanitation coverage. Read More