When the General Assembly unanimously adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back in 2000, water and sanitation were reduced to a subtext - never a stand-alone goal compared with poverty and hunger alleviation.
Now, as the United Nations begins the process of formulating a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for its post-2015 agenda, there is a campaign to underscore the importance of water and sanitation, so that the world body will get it right the second time around.
Ambassador Csaba Korosi of Hungary, whose government will host an international water summit in the capital of Budapest in October, says, "Sustainable development goals for water should be designed in order to avoid the looming global water crisis."
Speaking to reporters last week, Hungary's Permanent Representative to the United Nations said water resources have remained virtually unchanged for nearly 1,000 years.
"But the number of users have since increased by about 8,000 times," he said.
With global food production projected to increase 80 percent by 2030 - and with 70 percent of water consumption flowing into the agricultural sector - Korosi said 2.5 billion people will very soon live in areas of water scarcity.
Addressing the Special Thematic Session of the General Assembly on Water and Disasters last week, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson was blunt: "We must address the global disgrace of thousands of people who die every day in silent emergencies caused by dirty water and poor sanitation."
The theme of the Budapest water summit, scheduled for early October, will be "The Role of Water and Sanitation in the Global Sustainable Development Agenda."
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