Water should 'be a right' for all

Everyone in the world should be able to access clean water, according to the Public Library of Science Medicine.

In the latest edition of the journal, the editors have called for access to clean water being made a human right.

The authors stated: "Access to clean water can substantially reduce the global burden disease caused by water-borne infections.

"Millions of people are affected each year by a range of water-borne diseases including diarrhea, which is responsible for 1.8 million potentially preventable deaths per year, mostly among children under the age of five."

Additionally, the journal claimed that a worldwide water shortage is a possibility and it is not only the poorest countries that are being affected by the problem.

There are 1.2 billion people around the globe who do not have access to clean drinking water, according to the World Health Organisation, with a further 2.6 billion living with inadequate sanitation systems.

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