Clean Water for Everyone?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were drawn up and ratified by all the members countries of the United Nations in 2000 as a roadmap towards improved quality of life for the population of developing countries. The ambitious objective of halving by 2015 the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water was reached in 2010, five years ahead of schedule, and was one of the first targets achieved. Despite the progress made, 2.5 billion people still lack access to basic sanitation facilities such as latrines.

The next major challenge, if we want to move beyond the MDG targets, will be to provide water and sanitation in informal settlements and slums. If this is not done, the situation can only deteriorate in the future because current projections forecast an expansion of the urban space and rapid growth of the world's urban population. Providing water and sanitation services in peripheral urban areas entails complex technical problems. However, the municipal authorities who consider cost to be a barrier to implementing such solutions would do well to include in their calculations the cost of pollution, disease, and loss of tourism associated with the lack of these basic services.

The situation in developed countries is different because the problems of sanitation and access to clean water have largely been resolved. Nevertheless, water is still a scarce resource used intensively for agricultural, industrial and domestic purposes. And it is precisely such intensive use that gives rise to water pollution. In Europe, bodies of water contain many contaminants: pesticides and nitrates from agriculture; antibiotics used to treat livestock; ingredients from consumer products, such as sunscreens; drugs used in hospitals or in the home; and perfluorinated compounds. Consequently, integrated water management—including wastewater treatment plants and drinking water purification systems—is essential. Even so, traces of some of these contaminants are still found in our water supply networks. This would not be worrying if it were not for the fact that a wide range of such pollutants may be present in low concentrations and we have no way of knowing what synergies may appear or of predicting the effects of chronic exposure to these cocktails of compounds.

The satisfaction of achieving the MDG target for access to clean water is cause for celebration. However, we should not lose sight of the changing context, the new challenges that threaten this universal right, and the role every one of us can play in ensuring rational water use.