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World leaders meeting at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 committed themselves to attaining the Millennium Development Goal 7, target 10 which aims to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg added another target: to halve by 2015, the proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation. Although the task is enormous, it is not insurmountable. Improving access to water and sanitation in low income urban settlements is possible.
In 2000, more than 830 million people in Asia Pacific region did not have access to safe drinking water. More than 2 billion lacked sanitation facilities. This problem is even worse in sub-Saharan Africa where in 2000, over 300 million people in Africa did not have access to safe water and over 500 million were without adequate sanitation. Additionally, low-income urban dwellers have to pay high prices for water sometimes up to 50 times the price paid by higher income groups. This problem has been worsened by a high rate of urbanization. Africa has been experiencing the world's most rapid rate of urbanization at nearly 5 per cent per annum.
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Page updated 2010-04-09 by
