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The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations International Children�s Fund (UNICEF) said there is the need to further reduce gaps in access to improved drinking water and sanitation. In a eport made available to the Ghana News Agency on Friday and signed by Mr Tarik Jasarevic, WHO Communications Officer, said more than half of the global population lives in cities, and urban areas are still better supplied with improved water and sanitation than rural ones, but the gap is decreasing. The report said since 1990, almost 2 billion people globally have gained access to improved sanitation, and 2.3 billion have gained access to drinking-water from improved sources. Some 1.6 billion of these people have piped water connections in their homes or compounds, according to a new WHO/UNICEF report, entitled Progress on drinking water and sanitation: 2014 update, which also highlights a narrowing disparity in access to cleaner water and better sanitation between rural and urban areas. The report said in 1990, more than 76 per cent people living in urban areas had access to improved sanitation, as opposed to only 28 per cent in rural areas and by 2012, 80 per cent urban dwellers and 47 per cent rural had access to better sanitation. It recounted that in 1990, 95 per cent people in urban areas could drink improved water, compared with 62 per cent people in rural ones. The report said by 2012, 96 per cent people living in towns and 82 per cent of those in rural areas had access to improved water. Despite this progress, sharp geographic, socio-cultural, and economic inequalities in access to improved drinking water and sanitation facilities still persist around the world, the report added. �The vast majority of those without improved sanitation are poorer people living in rural areas. Progress on rural sanitation � where it has occurred � has primarily benefitted richer people, increasing inequalities,� said Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director for Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health. �Too many people still lack a basic level of drinking water and sanitation. The challenge now is to take concrete steps to accelerate access to disadvantaged groups. An essential first step is to track better who, when and how people access improved sanitation and drinking water, so we can focus on those who don�t yet have access to these basic facilities,� she added. The report said in addition to the disparities between urban and rural areas, there are often also striking differences in access within towns and cities. It said people living in low-income, informal or illegal settlements or on the outskirts of cities or small towns are less likely to have access to an improved water supply or better sanitation. �When we fail to provide equal access to improved water sources and sanitation we are failing the poorest and the most vulnerable children and their families,� said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. �If we hope to see children healthier and better educated, there must be more equitable and fairer access to improved water and sanitation.� It said poor sanitation and contaminated water are linked to transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, and typhoid. It noted that in addition, inadequate or absent water and sanitation services in health care facilities put already vulnerable patients at additional risk of infection and disease. The report presents estimates for 1990-2012 and is based on data from nationally representative household surveys and censuses for the same period. It reveals that by 2012, 116 countries had met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for drinking water, 77 had met the MDG target for sanitation and 56 countries had met both targets. MDG 7.C aims to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation is the official United Nations mechanism tasked with monitoring country, regional and global progress, and especially towards the MDG�s target relating to access to drinking water and sanitation.