In 2000, governments committed to a wide range of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that rely upon access to water and made a specific commitment to halve the number of people without access to clean water and adequate sanitation by 2015.
T he 2010 update on progress towards the water specific goals reports that 884 million – nearly 1 billion people – lack access to clean drinking water. When it comes to sanitation, 2.6 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation services. One in seven of those people without access to adequate sanitation services live in rural areas (WHO/UNICEF 2010).
At the current rate of investment progress, the Millennium Development Goals for sanitation will be missed by 1 billion people (Figure 4). Most of these people live in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (Figure 5).
Significant progress has been made in India and China (WHO/UNICEF 2010).
Population without improved sanitation %
50 45 40 35 30 25 15 10 5 0
46 45 42 40
39 (2008)
36 (projected) 23 (target)
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
Figure 4: Global progress towards MDGs’ target to reduce the number of people without access to adequate sanitation services to 1.7 billion people
by 2015. Source: WHO/UNICEF (2010)
Progress towards MDG target On track Progress but insufficient Not on track No or insufficient data
Figure 5: Progress towards attainment of the MDGs’ sanitation target to halve the number of people
without adequate sanitation by 2015 Source: WHO/UNICEF (2010)