Global analysis and assessment of sanitation and drinking-water

12 April 2012 -- The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report provides further reason for vigilance - resources are neither targeted nor apparently sufficient to sustain routine operation and maintenance of water and sanitation services. Thus, there is a serious risk of slipping backwards on gains already made. The analysis emerging from UN-Water GLAAS also helps to identify the reasons behind the disparities in access to sanitation and drinking-water among different regions, communities and income groups.

6 March 2012 -- The report Progress on drinking water and sanitation brings welcome news: the MDG drinking-water target was met in 2010, five years ahead of schedule.

However, an estimated 780 million still lacked safe drinking water in 2010, and the world is unlikely to meet the MDG sanitation target. A reduction in urban-rural disparities and inequities associated with poverty; drinking-water coverage in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania; putting sanitation ‘on track’; and universal coverage beyond 2015 all remain high on the development and public health agenda.