884 million people lack access to clean water
2.6 billion people are without access to basic sanitation

The world is on track to achieve and even exceed the Millennium Development Goals target on drinking water. By 2015, nearly 90 per cent of the population in developing regions, up from 77 per cent in 1990, will have access to improved sources of drinking water. Even so, as of the end of 2008, 884 million people lacked access to clean water and only 57 per cent of the world’s people obtained their drinking water from a piped connection.

The Millennium Development Goal sanitation target is far from being met. Globally, improved sanitation coverage was just above the 60 per cent mark in 2008, up from 54 per cent in 1990, with over 2.6 billion people still without access. Seven out of 10 people without improved sanitation live in rural areas, while in urban areas, keeping up with the population increase will require serving another 700 million people.