2012年，联合国宣布千年发展目标（Millennium Development Goals）中关于让无法获得安全饮用水的人数减少一半的目标已经提前完成，目前只有7.83亿人仍然无法获得清洁水。
In 2012, the United Nations announced that the Millennium Development Goals’ target of halving the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water had been achieved well ahead of schedule, with only 783 million people still lacking access to clean water.