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Millennium Development Goals

The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals were created to dramatically improve the lives of the world’s poorest. Many of these eight goals are water-related.

By the year 2015 (the target date for all the Millennium Development Goals), the United Nations has resolved to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water and who lack basic sanitation.

If this goal can be achieved, it will enable the realization of other goals, such as reducing the under-five child mortality rate by 66 percent, and ensuring that children can complete a full course of primary schooling.

The organization further vowed to “stop the unsustainable exploitation of water resources by developing water management strategies at the regional, national, and local levels, which promote both equitable access and adequate supplies.”

With less then a decade remaining until the target date, the present results are mixed.

In 1990, 35 percent of the developing world had access to proper sanitation. By 2004 that number had reached 50 percent—an additional 1.2 billion people. Yet at this rate of improvement, it appears that the world will considerably fall short of its 2015 goal.

Progress is better regarding the availability of improved drinking water sources. World coverage has increased from 71 percent in 1990 to 80 percent in 2004—and is on track to meet the 2015 target. Yet global coverage remains uneven and falls far short in many rural areas and especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

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