To ensure our basic needs, we all need 20 to 50 litres of water free from harmful contaminants each and every day. In addition, a child born in the developed world consumes 30 to 50 times as much water as one in the developing world. The state of human health is inextricably linked to a range of water-related conditions: safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, minimized burden of water-related disease and healthy freshwater ecosystems. Urgent improvements in the ways in which water use and sanitation are managed are needed to improve progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to human health.
Targets
UN Millennium Development Goal (2000):
'Reduce by half, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.'
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World Summit on Sustainable Development, Plan of Implementation (2002):
'... we agree to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water (as outlined in the Millennium Declaration) and the proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation.'
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Water supply, distribution of unserved populations |
Sanitation, distribution of unserved populations |
| Asia shows the highest number of people unserved by either water supply or sanitation; yet it is important to note that proportionally, this group is bigger in Africa because of the difference of population size between the two continents. | |
| Source: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, (2002), extracted from WWDR1, 'Water for People, Water for Life' (UNESCO-WWAP, 2003) | |
