Ensuring Environmental Sustainability

MDG7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

• Target: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
• Target: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
• Target: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
• Target: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

Of all the MDGs, the one aimed at improving environmental sustainability, access to water and sanitation, reduction of biodiversity loss and improving the lives of slum dwellers has made some of the most important progress.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the two main barriers to improved water sources are poverty and the lack of nearby water. Estimates are that about 75 percent of the population in these countries have to travel to other areas to collect water, a round trip that can take up to several hours. The good news is that the target to increase the access to safe drinking water has not only already been met but was even exceeded by 1 percent, leading to 89 percent of the population having access to safe water sources at the end of 2010, and an expected 92 percent for 2015. In 1990 only 71 percent of people worldwide had that access.

Furthermore, the target to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers was reached twice over, with over 200 million slum dwellers gaining access to improved water sources, sanitation or housing. Though global population growth has led to an increase in the overall number of residents of slums, the proportion of the world population who live in slums has decreased from 39 percent in 2000 to 33 percent in 2012.

Improved sanitation faces difficulties, and estimates are that it will take until 2049 to reach the UN’s sanitation target if current trends continue. The most significant progress sanitation has seen was in northern Africa, where improved sanitation coverage reached 89 percent in 2008 progressing from 72 percent in 1990. In 2006, the UN reports that more than 37 percent of the world’s population did not have access to any form of improved sanitation such as toilets or latrines. Sanitation coverage made important advances as it went from 36 percent in 1990 to 56 percent in 2010 in developing regions as a whole.  

In regards to biodiversity, 13 million hectares of forest are currently lost each year. The hardships in regards to reducing biodiversity losses lie in rate of consumption, habitat loss, invasions species, climate change and pollution. These factors, along with the poor management of protected areas increasing their risk level, led certain targets remaining out of reach.

Ultimately, there has been significant progress toward the UN’s seventh development goal. However, further efforts are still needed in the battles for sanitation and environmental sustainability.

Nina Mansour is an intern at InterAction.

In the year 2000, after a decade of conferences and summits, the UN created the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a series of eight goals with concrete targets to achieve by 2015. With just three years until December 31, 2015, the world is beginning to evaluate how close we are to achieving the MDGs and to look forward. This eight-part blog series highlights some of the successes and challenges as we close out 2012.