Getting the ‘Off Track’ on Target

Access to safe water and basic sanitation should be at the heart of the international community’s efforts to reduce poverty given the critical contribution that it makes to human development. However, water and sanitation has been slipping down the poverty agenda, as measured by the proportion of international aid flows to the sector, until recently. This despite the fact that some of the poorest countries in the world are way ‘off track’ with the Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) target to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. We urgently need to reassert the importance of safe water and sanitation to human development and the achievement of the MDGs, and to focus our efforts on getting the poorest ‘off track’ countries on target.