Half the world's population is living in unsanitary conditions without access to clean water, according to a UN-backed report.

The report, drawn up by the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century, says three billion of the world's most deprived people live in squalor and misery without access to proper sanitation.

One billion of them have no access to safe water at all. But the report says this does not have to be the case.

The commission says that everyone could have clean drinking water and improved sanitation facilities within 25 years if governments made water provision a priority.

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