ABSTRACT
Meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation services (WSS), as envisaged in target 10 of the MDGs, encompasses significant financial challenges. Even though there is no consensus about the actual financial implications for achieving the goal, it is clear that a vast amount of additional resources are needed (Mehta et al, 2005). Estimates for the total amount of funding required to achieve MDG target 10 range from between US$6.5 billion and US$75 billion per year. Table 18.1 shows data for the coverage of WSS in Bangladesh and Nepal in 2002, suggesting that great efforts will have to be devoted to enhance sanitation coverage, both in rural and urban areas in these two countries. Moreover, Bangladesh is particularly far from reaching the target for drinking water, and in both countries the chances of success are hampered by chronic water shortages in urban areas.
