ANKARA

One in four health care facilities around the world lacks basic water services, affecting over two billion people, a new report revealed on Wednesday.

“An estimated 896 million people use health care facilities with no water service and 1.5 billion use facilities with no sanitation services,” said the report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP).

The report is the first comprehensive global assessment of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in health care facilities, including national data from 125 countries drawing upon assessments of over 560,000 health care facilities.

“WASH is a prerequisite for quality care, and is particularly important for the safe management of childbirth,” said the report, highlighting that these services are important to prevent infections and spread of microbes especially for childbirth.

The report went on to say that one in five births globally takes place in the Least Developed Countries, stating that “17 million women in these countries give birth in health centers with inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene”.

The report also noted that each year more than one million deaths are associated with unclean births.

“7,000 newborn babies died every day in 2017, mostly from preventable and treatable conditions,” said UNICEF, calling for governments to ensure each mother to have access to adequate health care.

The WHO and the UNICEF -- through the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene -- have produced regular updates on water, sanitation and hygiene since 1990.