Safe water and toilets 'key to tackling poverty'

A new report has suggested that providing people with safe, clean water and basic sanitation facilities is key to fighting poverty.

The United Nations University's report has claimed that better water supplies can help to fight poverty by providing better opportunities for local businesspeople, saving money in the public health sector and increasing "individual productivity".

Zafar Adeel, director of the UN University's Canadian-based International Network on Water, said it is "astonishing" that worldwide standards have not been established for water supplies yet.

"Water problems, caused largely by an appalling absence of adequate toilets in many places, contribute tremendously to some of the world's most punishing problems," he continued.

The report also urges country leaders to come together to harmonise water and sanitation standards between nations.

Meanwhile, it emerged today that Bulgaria and Germany are to collaborate to develop a state of the art water treatment plant.