ABSTRACT
Improving water resources management and development is also a critical factor for meeting the broader set of goals – eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating major diseases; and improving environmental sustainability. (UN Millennium Project 2005)
The MDGs2 reflect the global community’s commitment to reduce poverty over the next decade, a period designated by the United Nations as the Decade of Water for Life (UNDP 2000). Goal 7 target 7c identifies access to adequate and safe water and improved sanitation as fundamental to poverty reduction. Target 7c calls for halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation. The UN Millennium Development Goal Report 2009 (United Nations 2009)3 indicates that the world is ahead of schedule in meeting the 2015 drinking water target. About 884 million people worldwide still rely on unimproved water sources for their drinking, cooking, bathing and other domestic activities.
