World's poor pay most for drinking water, commission says

In some cases, people do not have access to water because they cannot afford a house connection VIDEO CNN's Amanda Kibel looks at the state of the world's water supply Windows Media 28K 80K

Report: Millions die each year due to contaminated water

August 6, 1999
Web posted at: 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 GMT)

LONDON (CNN) -- The world's poorest people pay the highest prices for water, and often receive polluted or contaminated drinking water, a U.N.-affiliated water commission reported.

The World Commission on Water for the 21st Century surveyed water vending in 16 developing countries and found that the poor pay on average 12 times more per liter, mostly to independent vendors who sell tap water in small jugs or buckets.

"In many cases they don't access because the system doesn't reach them, because the municipality doesn't extend it into their area, they can't afford a house connection ... or there are rules that say: 'If you don't have title to the property, we can't supply you with water,'" said William Cossgrove, director of the commission.

"The result is, not having access to a safe municipal water supply, these people then have to turn to other sources. And there they have to go to third parties who deliver it in small quantities and charge a lot more money for it," Cossgrove said.

Much of that water is drawn from polluted rivers or other contaminated sources. The commission estimates that more than 3 million people die each year from water-related diseases.

In all, 1.2 billion people have no access to clean water, the commission reported.

Often water that is bought at a premium from vendors is drawn from polluted rivers

According to the water commission's survey, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, vendors charge 100 times more than the cost for tap water; in Karachi, Pakistan, 83 times more; and in Jakarta, Indonesia, 60 times more.

The cheapest water in the industrialized world is in Canada, where consumers pay an average of 31 cents per cubic meter, while the most expensive is in Germany at $2.16 per cubic meter. In the United States, it's between 40 cents and 80 cents. Prices are generally lower in the developing world, partly because of subsidies, ranging anywhere from a few cents to just over $1 per cubic meter.

Possible solutions cited by the commission include subsidized stamps redeemable for clean water -- either by tapping into municipal sources or buying from more reliable vendors -- and community-run irrigation systems, funded or subsidized by the government.

Providing universal water access would be extremely costly, the commission said, with a price tag of more than $30 billion a year over the next decade. But the group said water should be a basic human right, not an expensive luxury.

Correspondent Amanda Kibel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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