Dehydration and poor sanitation throughout the Asia Pacific region is killing a child every seven minutes according to a new report released by World Vision Australia.

Prepared in partnership with WaterAid Australia, 'Getting the Basics Right: Water and Sanitation in South East Asia and the Pacific' highlights the regional crisis in which 100 million people - five times Australia's population - do not have safe drinking water. A further 185 million people - nine times our population - do not have adequate sanitation.

World Vision Australia Chief Executive, Tim Costello, says dirty water and poor hygiene are silent killers that each year account for the deaths of 80,000 children under five in the South East Asia and Pacific region alone.

"The difference between life and death for most people is about 20 litres of clean water per person per day. This is much less than the average Australian uses every day to flush the toilet."

"In many cases the problem is not a lack of water but sanitation. Worldwide 1.8 million die from diarrhoea every year. We can stop this. The solutions are simple and include simple pit latrines and hygiene education," added Mr Costello.

WaterAid Australia Chairman, Tony Kelly added, "as a result of a more national and focussed approach towards sanitation, we are now seeing practical solutions that work, such as the Community Led Total Sanitation approach in Bangladesh, India and Indonesia."

"More sustainable community-led solutions not only saves lives, but allows women who generally are responsible for collecting and using water to be more involved in decision-making about water and sanitation and young girls can attend school instead of spending hours everyday fetching water."

Four years on from the release of AusAIDs Water Policy 'Making Every Drop Count', Australia's level of investment in water and sanitation development (about A$50-60 million a year) is less than a fifth of our share to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - the United Nation's blueprint for halving chronic poverty in our world by 2015.

"As Australia's aid budget doubles over the next four years we should be able to give our full share - $350 million a year - to achieve water and sanitation MDGs in our region. This is well within our capacity - all we need is political will," said Mr Costello.

Of the 22 developing countries in South East Asia and the Pacific, 13 are not on track to achieve the MDG water targets and 10 are not on track to achieve sanitation targets.

Authored by University of Technology, Sydney, the report estimates that if Australia took up the recommendations it could reduce the cases of severe diarrhoea by 42 million; there could by up to 18 million more schools days; 167 million work days; and direct health savings of A$936 million - a total economic benefits of more than A$15 billion to the region.

The report calls on Australia to take a leadership role in the region, develop national plans for each country, establish regional water and sanitation targets and coordinate government, donor, NGO and public action.

Find the full report at: http://www.worldvision.com.au/learn/policyandreports/files/WaterReport.pdf

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