At current trends the world is expected to fall short of meeting the drinking water Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target by 354 million people and the sanitation MDG target by 564 million people. Recently it was estimated that 1.7 million deaths per year were attributable to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene. A variety of economic impacts are linked to improved water and sanitation, which is one key contributor to poverty reduction efforts. The aim of this study is to estimate the health impacts and economic costs and benefits of improving water supply and sanitation services, with a focus on the least developed countries that are “off-track” to meet the water supply and sanitation MDG targets. In other words, based on trends from 1990 to 2004, these countries are predicted to fall short of one or both of the MDG targets for water supply and sanitation. The study models the impacts of low cost water supply and sanitation improvements in countries where the predicted coverage in 2015 falls short of the water supply and sanitation MDG targets, with the aim of focusing existing budgets as well as new resource allocations on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal targets in these off-track countries. The study also estimates the costs and benefits of achieving universal access to improved drinking water supply and sanitation.

Bibliographic information

Hutton, G., Haller, L., Bartram, J. (2007). Economic and health effects of increasing coverage of low cost household drinking water supply and sanitation interventions WHO

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