This spring the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrated the early completion the 2015 development goal of bringing improved drinking water to an additional two billion people since 1990.

"Today we recognize a great achievement for the people of the world," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the occasion. "The successful efforts to provide greater access to drinking water."

The feat was a landmark in securing what the U.N. General Assembly declared in 2010 was a universal human right: "access to safe and clean water." In an effort to improve health and quality of life across the world between 1990 and 2015, the U.N. established eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG). One of the sub targets was to "halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation."

And by early 2012 only approximately 800 million people around the globe still relied on "unimproved" water sources such as streams, ditches or unprotected wells, which are the most likely places for contaminated water. Pipes, boreholes and protected wells are much more likely to prevent contact with dangerous pathogens, chemicals or sewage runoff.

But just because water is pouring out of a spigot does not mean that it is safe to drink. In poorer areas, where infrastructure and sanitation are often much worse, even sources of water that have been "improved" are frequently at risk for contamination by human and animal feces, according to recent analyses.

Improved but not necessarily safe
One report, published earlier this year in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, analyzed water quality test data from five countries (Ethiopia, Jordan, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Tajikistan) and found that many sources of "improved" water failed the safety test. When these improved waters were tested and compared with survey data about where people got most of their water, the estimates for the populations that have access to safe drinking water fell by 16 percent in Nicaragua, 15 percent in Nigeria, 11 percent in Ethiopia and 7 percent in Tajikistan. (Jordan, which primarily uses public utilities to pipe water, remained at a relatively high percentage.) Additionally, the study authors noted, the number of people who had access to safe—and not just improved—water in 1990 was likely much lower than previously estimated, which means that the 2015 target is even farther away than estimated by the current rubric.

Extrapolating from these five very different countries spread over three continents to the rest of the globe is difficult. But one group of researchers at the Gillings School of Global Public Health's Water Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took a shot at it in their March International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health paper. They estimate that some 1.8 billion people—28 percent of the population worldwide—was using unsafe water as of 2010. That is far more than the 783 million (or 11 percent) estimated by WHO and UNICEF to have access to improved water sources. The researchers acknowledge that their "estimate is imprecise," but "the magnitude of the estimate and the health and development implications suggest that greater attention is needed to better understand and manage drinking water safety." And other experts in the field agree that their estimate is a good ballpark figure for the true disparity.

10 Comments

1. 1. jtdwyer 03:30 PM 5/21/12

   I hate to have to mention it, but a significant factor in this equation is that the global population has nearly tripled since 1950 - the supply of potable water has not. Moreover, the increase in population has come disproportionately in areas where potable water is exceedingly scarce. I do not want to see anyone suffer - potable water (and food) cannot be continually supplied to an ever increasing global population.
   
   The root cause must be effectively addressed.

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2. 2. geojellyroll 06:41 PM 5/21/12

   What part of population control is such a mystery? Average children per woman in Kentys is 7.1 In Canada it's 1.3
   
   Only action I support is vending machines on every corner of every street in every village dispensing free condoms and birth control pills.

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3. 3. ejames429 08:18 PM 5/21/12

   I said it once and its worth repeating:
   
   First stop polluting perfectly good water and pumping it underground to get Natural Gas!! Why in hell are we allowing Gas companies to pump water that has been contaminated with chemicals into the ground where it will likely remain for hundreds of years or until people decide they have to pump it out and clean it in order to drink it? Human beings are the most retarded of species! The deficate right in the same place they eat and then invite others to come over do the same all so they drive around in cars! The answer is obvious and right under our noses but greed stops us from taking the obvious course to correct these most basic of problems!

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4. 4. ejames429 08:24 PM 5/21/12

   If you want to talk about population control issues; one should look at the fact that researchers and governments are spending huge amounts of money trying stop Malaria thereby saving millions of lives! I am all for saving lives but if you save lives you have to also spend money on figuring out how in hell you are going to support the addition of another million plus people in countries that already cannot sustain the people already alive! No food, water, job prospects, and no infrastructure - what are we doing? Common sense says spend money figuring out how support the people alive first then worry about those dying from diseases which are most likely here as a natural form of population control!

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5. 5. Carlyle 10:59 PM 5/21/12

   I have never understood why the feminist movement have not done more to liberate their sisters from the oppressive traditions prevalent in male dominated societies where women often have no more status than beasts of burden. The two most effective means of achieving a lower population is education & much more equal rights between the sexes. When women have access to education & are able to say no, particularly without contraceptive protection, all the other things will fall into place. Corruption is by far the greatest hindrance to the advancement of under developed societies.
   As for disease control, birth rates have always decreased when societies have become healthier.
   On the physical side of the water supply problem, just imagine how much could have been done with the money wasted on AGW.
   

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6. 6. oldvic 11:08 AM 5/22/12

   The most tragic side of this situation is that those in dire need of help are those least able to help themselves, and often the ones with birth rates that are completely unsustainable now, not just in the future.

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7. 7. ironjustice 11:39 AM 5/22/12

   Quote: birth rates that are completely unsustainable now, not just in the future
   
   Answer: We build massive structures to grow food. It is a pretty simple solution and anybody who says it cannot be done is either very stupid or has an agenda which they haven't fully researched. Imho.

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8. 8. ironjustice 11:51 AM 5/22/12

   "30-story building built in 15 days"
   "In 2013 we will build 20 buildings a month and by 2014, we'll be up to 50 buildings a month"
   
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdpf-MQM9vY

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9. 9. ironjustice 11:57 AM 5/22/12

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming
   
   "Vertical farming is a concept that argues that it is economically and environmentally viable to cultivate plant or animal life within skyscrapers, or on vertically inclined surfaces."
   
   http://www.verticalfarm.com/

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10. 10. ait10101 in reply to Carlyle 04:22 PM 5/27/12

    Actually, the single most effective way to reduce population is to increase urbanization. Africa's population except two or three countries) is rather low by European and Asian standards. The problem is lack of communication and infrastructure. Water can be recycled.

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