Cleaning the lifeline
The toll of diseases across the world could be reduced to a great extent by using safe water, hygienic latrines and by washing hands before handling food. Staying healthy is, therefore, easier for the rich than the poor. In poorer communities, the potential for staying healthy is greater if clean water is readily available and used properly. But proper use is feasible if water comes from a standpipe close to home. Here are some figures of purported rise in the availability of standpipe water, though this by itself means very little, because in developing countries, water quality is abysmally poor. And in the case of India, at least, even the water availability scenario is based on data grossly inflated by the government.
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Middle East and North Africa | South Asia | East Asia and Pacific | Latin America and Caribbean |
| Angola 32 | Algeria 79 | Afganistan 12 | China 69 | Argentina 71 |
| Botswana 93 | Egypt 80 | Bangladesh 92 | Hong Kong 100 | Brazil 71 |
| Ethiopia 25 | Iran 83 | Bhutan 21 | Malaysia 78 | Colombia 87 |
| Kenya 53 | Iraq 44 | India 74 | Myanmar 38 | Cuba 93 |
| South Africa 70 | Lebanon 100 | Nepal 46 | Papua New Guinea 28 | Haiti 28 |
| Uganda 34 | Turkey 80 | Pakistan 79 | Thailand 86 | Jamaica 100 |
| Zimbawe 84 | United Arab Emirates 95 | Srilanka 46 | Viet Nam 36 | Mexico 83 |
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