What are the main emerging trends from the current assessment?
Download audio file (mp3) It is thanks to the JMP that the world can see the progress we are making towards achieving the water and sanitation targets, and set policy priorities accordingly. We saw an increase of 5 percentage points in drinking water coverage from 1990 to 2004 and a staggering 10% increase in sanitation. This is a remarkable and encouraging development if we consider that the world’s population increased by 21% during the same period of time. Yet, the JMP is also showing us that business as usual will cause us to miss the 2015 targets. If we continue to provide new sanitation connections at the current rate, we will miss the sanitation target by around 1 billion people. And, while until recently we were on track to meet the drinking water target, progress there has been slowing down. If we do not accelerate our efforts to ensure that the world’s people have access to an improved source of drinking water, we will miss that target, too.
