全球飲用水安全 已達聯合國千禧年發展目標

Close to nine out of every 10 people in the world now has access to clean, safe drinking water, finds a report issued today by UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

The new statistic means that the world has achieved the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water in advance of the 2015 deadline. The safe drinking water target is part of the Environmental Sustainability Goal.

Between 1990 and 2010, more than two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells. By 2010, 89 percent of the world's population, or 6.1 billion people, used improved drinking water sources, exceeding the target of 88 percent.

"Today we recognize a great achievement for the people of the world," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "This is one of the first MDG (Millennium Development Goals)  targets to be met. The successful efforts to provide greater access to drinking water are a testament to all who see the Millennium Development Goals not as a dream, but as a vital tool for improving the lives of millions of the poorest people."

The new report, "Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation 2012," issued today by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, says that by the target date of 2015, 92 percent of the global population will have access to improved drinking water.

"Providing sustainable access to improved drinking water sources is one of the most important things we can do to reduce disease," said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. "But this achievement today is only the beginning. We must continue to ensure this access remains safe. Otherwise our gains will be in vain."

"For children this is especially good news," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. "Every day more than 3,000 children die from diarrhoeal diseases. Achieving this goal will go a long way to saving children's lives."

Lake warned that at least 11 percent of the world's population, 783 million people, are still without access to safe drinking water, and billions are still without sanitation facilities.

The world is still far from meeting the Millennium Development Goal target for sanitation, and is unlikely to do so by the target date of 2015. Currently 2.5 billion people lack improved sanitation, the report shows.

Only 63 percent of the world's people now have improved sanitation access, a figure projected to increase to 67 percent by 2015. But that figure is still well below the 75 percent MDG target.

Only 61 percent of the people in sub-Saharan Africa have access to improved water supply sources compared with 90 percent or more in Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern Africa, and large parts of Asia.

Over 40 percent of all people globally who lack access to safe drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the rural areas of Least Developed Countries, 97 out of every 100 people do not have piped water and 14 percent of the population drinks surface water from rivers, ponds, or lakes.

Of the 1.1 billion people who still practice open defecation, the vast majority live in rural areas. For instance, 17 percent of rural dwellers in Latin America and the Caribbean and nine percent in Northern Africa still resort to this practice.

Even the BRIC  countries, with rapidly growing economies, have large numbers of people without access to improved sanitation: 626 million in India, 14 million in China, and 7.2 million in Brazil, the report finds.