GENEVA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The world is in danger of missing targets for providing clean water and sanitation unless there is a dramatic increase in work and investments between now and 2015, a new UN report warned on Tuesday.

    The report, jointly issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN children's agency UNICEF, said the situation was particularly acute in urban areas, where rapid population growth is putting great pressure on water and sanitation systems.

    More than 1.1 billion people in the world currently still lack access to drinking water from an improved source and 2.6 billion people do not have access to even basic sanitation, the report said.

    The health impact of this situation can be seen particularly in children, said the report, adding that in 2005, 1.6 million children under age 5 (an average of 4,500 every day) died from the consequences of unsafe water and inadequate hygiene.

    A vast improvement in water and sanitation was one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a UN-brokered plan agreed six years ago with eight aims to be achieved by 2015.

    The goals also include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and slashing disease rates.

    Specifically, world leaders pledged to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

    "It is a tragedy that the world may not reach the water and sanitation MDGs. Safe drinking water and basic sanitation are so obviously essential to health that they risk being taken for granted," said Dr. Anders Nordstroem, acting director-general of the WHO.

    "Efforts to prevent death from diarrhea and other diseases are doomed to failure unless people have access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation," said Nordstroem.

    Sub-Saharan Africa remains the main focus of concern, according to the report.

    Currently, just 56 percent of the region's population has access to a decent water supply. Just 37 percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa had access to basic sanitation in 2004, compared to a global average of 59 percent.

    Meeting the water and sanitation targets of the MDGs will be one of the most effective means of raising the health and general living standards of many of the world's poor, the report said.

    But reaching the water and sanitation targets will require much greater efforts by policy makers, funding and training agencies, planning and construction sectors, etc., it said.  Enditem