Potable Water I

1.8 million children die each year, due to water born illnesses (United Nations Development Program [UNDP], Human Development Report [HDR] 2006), a sad, but true fact.
In September of 2000, the United Nations Development Program initiated a list of objectives that they hoped to reach by 2015. After reviewing the water situation in third world countries, and the effects of lack of sanitary water, they dedicated one of the Millennial Goals to this issue. UNDP entitled it: Potable-water (clean water) objective. The sole purpose of this particular goal is to half the population living without sufficient access to clean water and sanitation (UNDP, Fast Facts). When the UNDP started, about 1.2 billion people lived without drinkable water (UNDP, ff) and many people would have to walk miles to gather even filthy ground water (Water Aid). Unfortunately, with the growing population, UNDP focusing on sanitation rather than providing clean water, and the increasing amount of pollution the situation has not changed. While UNDP focuses on providing people with proper sanitation, as a result of their negligence of the water situation, not only is proper sanitation in the targeted areas unachievable; but economical, political, and discriminative problems often arise.
Despite UNDP’s potable-water and sanitation budget of 3 billion US dollars, and the decrease in deaths caused by lack of sanitary water (from 2.4 million children in 2000, to 1.8 children in 2006) the amount of people without clean water remains at 1.2 billion (the initial starting point of this goal), with almost half of the allotted time already gone. Contrary to this lack of improvement, UNDP still believes they will reach their goal, even though the funding is not being used to its full advantage. They say this with the foundation that their strategies are cost efficient and work well (UNDP HDR 2006), they have many lists of objectives and strategies, however, these strategies have really only worked for the spreading of sanitation awareness. They have the help of many organizations that are fundraising, donating, and spreading awareness. However the majority of these resources usually end up being spent on hygiene awareness rather than the distribution of clean water. Of course, spreading cleanliness is not a bad thing considering the death rate has gone down by 33%, but it still does not achieve the goal of halving the clean-waterless population. Yet, without clean water to promote sanitation, water born diseases kill five times more children then HIV/AIDS does (BBC, 2006).