26 September 2011: During her report to the 51st Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) regarding progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), PAHO Director Mirta Roses said the Americas region is on track to reach the water and sanitation targets by 2015. Under MDG-7 (Ensure Environmental Sustainability), Target C, the countries of the Americas Region were to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

As reported by Roses on 26 September 2011, the region increased the overall proportion of its population with improved drinking water from 84 to 91 percent. The percentage of urban residents with access to improved drinking water increased from 95 percent in 1990 to 97 percent in 2008, while for rural populations it rose from 63 to 80 percent. The proportion of people in the region without improved sanitation facilities declined from 32 to 22 percent from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s.

She stressed that there is still room for further progress: 40 million in the Americas still lack access to improved drinking water sources, and 115 million lack access to improved sanitation facilities.

The Directing Council meets once a year between quinquennial sessions of PAHO’s supreme governing authority, the Pan American Sanitary Conference, and acts on behalf of the Conference. [Publication: Health and the Millennium Development Goals: From Commitment to Action]