26m in BD do not have access to safe drinking water

FE Report
Bangladesh has been ranked seventh among the world's 10 countries where a large number of people do not have access to safe drinking water sources, said a joint statement issued by the UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) Friday.
Nearly 26 million of the total population of Bangladesh do not have access to safe drinking water, said the statement.
According to the estimates done by the two UN organisations, 10 countries are home to almost two-thirds of the global population without access to improved drinking water.
 Among the 10 countries, China topped the list with 108 million people, followed by India with 99 million, Nigeria 63 million, Ethiopia 43 million; Indonesia 39 million, Democratic Republic of the Congo 37 million, Bangladesh 26 million, United Republic of Tanzania 22 million, Kenya 16 million and Pakistan with 16 million, the statement revealed.
UNICEF says women and girls are disproportionately affected by lack of safe water. An estimated 71 per cent of the burden of drinking water collection is being shouldered by women and girls.
As many as 1,400 children under five die every day from diarrhoeal diseases linked to lack of safe water and adequate sanitation and hygiene.

The statement said almost four years after the world met the global target set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for safe drinking water, and after the UN General Assembly declared that water was a human right, over three-quarters of a billion people, most of them poor, still do not have this basic necessity, UNICEF said to mark World Water Day which falls on March 22.
Estimates from UNICEF and WHO published in 2013 showed a staggering 768 million people do not have access to safe drinking water, causing hundreds of thousands of children to become sick and die each year. Most of the people without access to safe water are poor and live in remote rural areas or urban slums, the report added.
The MDG target for drinking water was met and passed in 2010, when 89 per cent of the global population had access to improved sources of drinking water -- such as piped supplies, boreholes fitted with pumps, and protected wells.
Also in 2010, the UN General Assembly recognised safe drinking water and sanitation as human right, meaning every person should have access to safe water and basic sanitation. However, this basic right continues to be denied to the poorest section of people across the world.
"Every child, rich or poor, has the right to survive, the right to health, the right to a future," said Sanjay Wijesekera, head of UNICEF's global water, sanitation and hygiene programmes.
He said the most striking, and shocking, is that even in middle income countries there are millions of poor people who do not have safe water to drink.
"We must target the marginalised and often forgotten groups: those who are the most difficult to reach, the poorest and the most disadvantaged."
UNICEF WASH programming is taking place in over 100 countries, and new initiatives such as cost-effective drilling and community-based water safety planning are bringing safe water to families living in some of the most isolated regions.
UNICEF-supported 'WASH in Schools' programming has brought safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities to millions of school children around the world. In Bangladesh, UNICEF is supporting the implementation of innovative technologies, including managed aquifer recharge and multiple connections, to provide safe water to those most in need.