During an international meeting on water, sanitation and
hygiene, UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan Monday expressed his
hope that one day the world will no longer have to face the dire
consequences of inadequate access to safe drinking water and
basic sanitation. In a message to the first Global WASH Forum,
being held this week in Dakar, Senegal, Annan noted the
meeting's timeliness as part of the ongoing effort to achieve
the millennium development goals by the target year of 2015, as
well as the approach the International Decade for Action from
2005 to 2015, under the theme of "Water for Life," the China
View reported. Annan stated, "The stark truth is that every 15
seconds, a child dies as a result of diseases related to unsafe
drinking water and inadequate sanitation." He added, "Such
deaths can be prevented, but only if we improve on the progress
we have made to date, working simultaneously on water and
sanitation and on the wider effort to alleviate the crushing
poverty and debilitating health condition