Unsafe water killing one in 10: WHO
Updated
![Diseases relating to water disproportionately affects the world's poorest countries. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/base/china_water_rtr_250108.jpg "Diseases relating to water disproportionately affects the world's poorest countries. [Reuters]")
Diseases relating to water disproportionately affects the world's poorest countries. [Reuters]
A report by the World Health Organisation says unsafe water leads to one in 10 diseases and six per cent of deaths worldwide.
While the UN agency estimates that problems relating to water cause just over nine per cent of diseases recorded each year, the report highlights this disproportionately affects the world's poorest countries.
Report author, Annette Pruss-Ustun, says over 15 per cent of diseases could easily be prevented by improved water, sanitation and hygiene in the 35 most affected countries.
In developed countries, water causes less than one per cent of deaths.
In developing countries, the toll leaps to an average eight per cent with the extreme case being Angola in west Africa, at 24 per cent.
