Water and sanitation "most neglected public health danger".

• Author: Herro, Alana
• Position: Brief article

Between February and June, a cholera outbreak in the southern African country of Angola sickened 43,000 people and claimed more than 1,600 lives, according to a June New York Times article. The culprit: inadequate access to clean water and sanitation. Cholera and other diseases that are spread through human contact with contaminated water are responsible for up to 80 percent of all illnesses and deaths in the developing world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). David Douglas, president of the nonprofit group Water Advocates, has called water and sanitation "the most neglected public health danger in the world."

Every month, water-related diseases, which also include typhoid, ringworm, and dengue fever, kill more people than the estimated 250,000 lost in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. More than 1.1 billion people worldwide, or one-sixth of the global population, do not have access to safe drinking water, and nearly 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation, according to the WHO. While the share...