Not fit to drink

Half the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from diseases they drank. Drinking water contaminated with sewage kills an estimated two million people a year, mostly through diarrhoea, says a report called “Human Waste” timed to coincide with World Water Day last week. Its authors, the British charities Tearfund and Water Aid, say that more than 2 billion people have nowhere suitable to relieve themselves, and sanitation should be back on the political agenda at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August.