ABSTRACT
The adequate provision of water and sanitation services (WSS) 1 continues to be an essential requirement for protecting public health and maintaining basic living conditions, and the sustainable universalization 2 of these services at a global scale constitutes one of the major challenges of the early 21st century. Although in the last few decades the pace of technological progress in the WSS sector has been enormous, access to the benefits of this progress continues to be precluded to a significant share of the world's population. The protracted inequalities in the access to essential WSS continue to pose one of the most significant ethical dilemmas facing the international community.
