Groundwater and its susceptibility to degradation : a global assessment of the problem and options for management

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted by member countries of the UN in 2000 as a global consensus on objectives for addressing poverty. Water has a key role in strategies for achieving all of the MDGs, which include a target to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to a safe water supply and a commitment to ensure environmental sustainability. The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg made an important advance when it placed poverty eradication at the heart of efforts to achieve sustainable development. The Summit brought the development and environment movements together and committed the international community to a systematic effort both to reduce poverty and pursue sustainable development. A new target on sanitation and a commitment to have water resource plans for all countries in place by 2005 were made at WSSD. The importance of water and its fundamental contribution to sustainable development is now recognised, but the contribution of water to poverty reduction will only be realised if it is set in the broader context of social and economic development and environmental improvement.