UN: 89% of world population now has access to clean water

The United Nations said Wednesday that 89 percent of the world's population now has access to a safe water source but huge disparities between regions still exist. A joint report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Children's Fund said that while more than 90 percent of people in Latin America and the Caribbean now have access to safe water, only about 60 percent of people do in sub-Saharan Africa. In total, some 780 million people remain without access to clean water. The report also pointed out gender disparities, noting that in households without a safe drinking water source, women are responsible for collecting water from an outside source 71 percent of the time with a return travel time of about 30 minutes. Somalia remains one of the countries with the lowest proportion of households without access to safe drinking water, with only 29 percent of the population having access.