Asia Water Watch 2015 Are Countries in Asia on Track to Meet Target 10 of the Millennium Development Goals?

Abstract

Five years ago, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) unveiled a special horizon—one that the entire developing world has been tasked to arrive at by 2015. At this horizon is a world half as afflicted with poverty as the one we experience now. To arrive at this moment of achievement, though, we must first cross the water barrier. We must strive to meet MDG Target 10: To halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation. The strong correlation between water and poverty proves that when water is inaccessible and unfit, it is a barrier. But when it is available and clean, water is a bridge to even greater security and prosperity for the poor. For Asia and the Pacific, home to the majority of the world’s poor, MDG Target 10 is an especially ambitious but critical goal. The number of people without improved water supplies in the People’s Republic of China alone is nearly as large as the number of underserved in the entire African continent. Into the countdown to 2015, what progress does the Asia and Pacific region register in meeting MDG Target 10? What more is required? How will meeting MDG Target 10 advance countries toward achieving all eight MDGs? This report offers answers to these questions. Prepared by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and World Health Organization (WHO), it uses the latest data available to measure each country’s progress toward MDG Target 10 and analyzes whether it will be achieved. The results show a mixed picture. Some countries have already met the target; others are on track; others are likely to miss it in 2015. Some countries even show a decrease in coverage.