Scientific American examines global progress toward clean drinking water, sanitation goals

"U.N. Development Goals for better drinking water have already been reached, but a closer look shows that the measures fail to truly account for the lack of access to safe water," Scientific American reports in a feature story. "[J]ust because water is pouring out of a spigot does not mean that it is safe to drink," the article states, adding, "In poorer areas, where infrastructure and sanitation are often much worse, even sources of water that have been 'improved' are frequently at risk for contamination by human and animal feces, according to recent analyses." The magazine details a number of studies on the issue and concludes, "[W]hether there are 800 million or 1.8 billion people who lack safe water, the scourge of preventable deadly diarrheal and other waterborne diseases will continue to plague too many" (Harmon, 5/21).