Water for All: Water Knowledge Center - Water, Sanitation, and the Millennium Development Goals

Water, Sanitation and the Millennium Development Goals

The United Nation’s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted at the UN Millennium Declaration, reflect the global community's commitment to reduce poverty over the next decade.

MDG 7, which calls for ensuring environmental sustainability, has as one of its targets the halving of the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

For ADB, achieving these water supply and sanitation targets are essential in achieving all eight MDGs. With its Water Financing Program 2006-2010, ADB is doubling its investments in the water sector and channeling them towards rural communities, cities, and river basins.

Water Supply and Sanitation as Keys to MDG Achievement

ADB believes water supply and sanitation are key factors in achieving all eight MDGs.

MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Providing more water for agriculture and irrigation will increase food production and will help alleviate the world's hunger.
Improving water infrastructures and services will not only increase water provision but will also provide jobs to local communities and build capacities.
Easy access to water will halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and whose income is less than $1 a day.

MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Access to water supply will reduce the multiple burdens on women and girls, as they are the primary collectors, providers, users, and managers of water in the household.
Easy access to water will give girls and boys more time to attend school.
Better sanitation services will improve women's health.
With their hands free from collecting water, women will have more time to participate in community decision making and have greater opportunities for livelihood improvement.

MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
MDG 5: Improve maternal health
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

Better water quality and sanitation services will reduce children's and expectant mothers' susceptibility to diseases and generally improve health.
The provision of safe water for drinking and medical purposes will prevent pregnancy and birth complications, and increase people's ability to combat HIV/ AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
Better water management will reduce the incidence of waterborne diseases.

MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Better management of water resources will
Lessen pollution and improve water conservation
Ensure access to adequate and safe water and improved sanitation services for poor and poorly-serviced communities in rural and urban areas
Improve the lives of people in slum areas
Build capacity among communities organized around water supply provision

MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for development

Where water problems serve as a constraint to development (e.g. water scarcity, salinity, disasters, etc.), improved water resources management and water supply and sanitation services can facilitate partnerships for global development.

Water Supply and Sanitation in the Asia-Pacific

The Asia-Pacific region plays a pivotal role in the MDG commitment. It is home to the majority of the world's poor. One in five Asians does not have access to safe water supply; one in two does not have access to improved sanitation. The region's progress will affect the global community's success in achieving the MDG targets as scheduled.

Water and sanitation improvements are proving to be keys that unlock many aspects of poverty. Ideally, water and sanitation projects should be implemented in as far advance of the 2015 deadline as possible for their impacts to register on the other MDG targets.

Asia and the Pacific Total Population: 3.8 billion (2002)	Served Population	Unserved Population
Water Supply Coverage	3.2 billion	669 million

Urban	1.4 billion	85 million

Rural	1.8 billion	584 million

Sanitation Coverage	1.9 billion	2.0 billion

Urban	1.1 billion	361 million

Rural	756 million	1.6 billion

Actions to achieve the water and sanitation target indicators must be implemented without delay, and will need a minimum annual investments of US$8 billion over the next decade, according to the Asia Water Watch 2015 study undertaken by ADB, WHO, UNDP, and UNESCAP.

Regional and Country Profiles

View MDG 7 progress and projections in water supply and sanitation coverage in the Asia-Pacific region.

	Summary: Prospects for Water Supply and Sanitation View a forecast of individual countries' ability to meet MDG 7 water supply and sanitation targets by 2015.
	Water Supply and Sanitation in East and Northeast Asia Despite prosperous countries, East and Northeast Asia is home to around 15% of the world's population that lack water.
	Water Supply and Sanitation in North and Central Asia Water supply coverage in North and Central Asia has always been high but sanitation coverage has steadily declined.
	Water Supply and Sanitation in the Pacific The Pacific hosts great disparities in water supply and sanitation coverage between countries and between urban and rural areas.
	Water Supply and Sanitation in South and Southwest Asia South and Southwest Asia has improved greatly in water supply coverage but has the lowest sanitation coverage.
	Water Supply and Sanitation in Southeast Asia Southeast Asia has expanded access to sanitation but will encounter difficulties in water supply coverage in rural areas.

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Water Knowledge Center Water, Sanitation, and the Millennium Development Goals

Water Knowledge Center
Water, Sanitation, and the Millennium Development Goals