GENEVA, Jan 5 (AFP) - The UN's health agency on Wednesday warned that 150,000 people in areas devastated by the deadly tsunamis were at "extreme risk" of a major disease outbreak unless they receive clean water supplies by the end of the week.
Infectious diseases could claim a similar number of lives to the tidal waves "if basic needs, particularly access to safe drinking water, are not urgently restored to all populations by the end of this week", the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned in a statement.
"We are extremely concerned about the ongoing lack of access to basic needs," WHO Director General Lee Jong Wook added.
"We now estimate that as many as 150 000 people are at extreme risk, if a major disease outbreak in the affected areas occurs."
"The most urgent need now is to make sure everyone has access to safe drinking water," he said, repeating warnings given by global health officials for more than a week.
The agency also increased its appeal for emergency health assistance in South Asia by 20 million dollars (15 million euros) to 60 million dollars.
About 146,000 people have been reported killed by authorities following the tsunamis around the Indian Ocean on December 26, including more than 94,000 Indonesians, most of them in the partly-destroyed province of Aceh.
Lee arrived in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Wednesday to attend an international meeting on the catastrophe.
01/05/2005 11:35 GMT - AFP