Millennium
Development Goals
In 2000, the United Nation Millennium Summit established an eight
common international goals in its 189 country members (193 currently) following
the adoption of the United Nation Millennium Declaration. The goals was
established in the area of poverty and hunger; universal primary education;
gender equality; child mortality; maternal health; HIV/ AIDS, malaria and other
diseases; environmental sustainability and global partner for development.
These eight different goals are called Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
The summit developed targets and dates for achieving those targets. The member
countries and at least 23 international organizations committed to help achieve
the above mentioned millennium development goals by 2015.
Drinking
Water in Millennium Development Goals
In
goal seven (c) of Millennium Development Goals, there is a target which states
that the proportion of the population
without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
will be reduced halve by 2015. After the declaration, the World
Health Organization and UNICEF has started joint monitoring program to assess
the achievement/improvement in water supply and sanitation program.
These organizations defined the criteria of improved drinking water sources
to allow for international comparability for monitoring the Millennium Development
Goals (MGDs). The World Health Organization and UNICEF joint monitoring
program defines "improved" drinking water sources as
follows:
·
Piped water into dwelling
·
Piped water into yard/plot
·
Bottled
water, if the secondary source used by the household for
cooking and personal hygiene is improved
Water sources that are not considered as "improved" are:
·
Vendor provided water
·
Cart with small tank/drum
·
Bottled water, if the
secondary source used by the household for cooking and personal hygiene is
unimproved
·
Tanker-truck
·
Surface water
Where
is Achieved so far?
According
to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF joint monitoring program for
water supply and sanitation (JMP), between 1990 and 2010 more than 2 billion
people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies
and protected wells. Using data from household surveys and censuses, the JMP
said at the end of 2010, 89% of the population – 6.1 billion people – now used
improved drinking water sources, 1% more than the 88% target contained in millennium
development goal (MDG) number seven, set in 2000. It
is estimated that, 92% of the world’s population have now access to safe water
sources. However, about 8 % of the world total
population are still without access to safe drinking water.
It is not Over Yet
The
achievement in access to safe drinking water source through the MGDs program is
overwhelming and praise worthy but we can’t be fully satisfied from those data
and achievements. The data collected only measured access to improved water
sources, those that adequately protect the source from outside contamination,
rather than assessed the quality, or reliability of the water supply, or
whether water sources were sustainable. That means 89 % of the world’s
population have only improved water sources but we cannot ensure that those
improved water sources have good water quality, reliable source of water supply
and safe for drinking. The report do not have periodic and standardized water
testing data. These limitations and information gap suggest that reported
number of people using safe water supplies has been overestimated. Hence, the
water supply can’t be termed as improved without water quality data.
Similarly, the world has still huge regional disparities in
access to drinking water supply. The program achieved great success in China
and India where half of the 2 billion people have gained access to drinking
water since 1990. At the same time, many countries in Africa are not on track
to meet the target by 2015 and some countries actually falling back to pre-1990
rates of coverage. More than 40% of all people globally who lack access to
drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa. Also, there are stark variations
between urban and rural areas. The report said an estimated 96% of the urban
population globally has improved water supply sources, compared with 81% of the
rural population. This means 653 million people in rural areas lack improved
water sources.
What
Lies Ahead
The program is going to end in 2015. However, the world has
to come up with another concerted program that fills the limitation and data
gap of MGDs. All the partner agencies should galvanized efforts strongly as a
unit in all countries. The program should focus on providing the
cost-effective, periodic and standardized water testing facilities in all
member countries where program was successful in providing access to drinking
water. Similarly, there should be a novel program to the remaining countries
where people have no access to improved drinking water sources. The successful efforts to provide greater access to drinking water is a
spirited instrument for improving the lives of millions of the poorest people.
Sources
1. United
Nation Development Program/MDGs/Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation, 2012
2. World
Health Organization/Media Centre/Fact Sheets
3. World
Federation of United Nations Associations
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