Perspective: The unfinished agenda

New targets for drinking water and sanitation were the prime water-related outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. They aimed at better health and development. The critical mass needed to implement them must be created, primarily at the local level involving the people, governments and non-governmental organizations but with responsive participation and large-scale contributions of the international community. Many issues still need resolution in the light of experience since the 1980s. Let us launch a second Water Decade in 2004, world-wide, but vastly different from the Decade of the 1980s; a new Decade that will ensure enduring commitment and maintain the momentum created in Johannesburg.