By: David Coady
An international charity focussed on safe water and sanitation says children are dying needlessly in East Timor due to poor toilet facilities.
WaterAid Australia estimates more than 1000 children die from diarrhoea in East Timor each year and poor sanitation is a reason for this.
Its chief executive, Adam Laidlaw, says diarrhoea rates can be cut by more than a third when there is better hygiene.
"Over 2.5 billion people around the world...don´t have a safe place to go to the toilet, and one of the outcomes of that, particularly in countries like Timor-leste, is that we have a significant number of the child deaths each year due to diarrhoea".
He says the Australian Government needs to do more to improve sanitation.
"We reckon that Australia´s fair share for water and sanitation financing would be around about $350 million per year", he said.
"And currently the spend is around $165 million a year".
