So, what ARE the Millennium Development Goals?

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight different goals that the UN has set up to eradicate most poverty by 2015. The eight goals are as follows:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achive universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
7. Ensure enviromental sustainability.
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
(For more info on all of these goals, go here)

I'd like to focus on #7, the one about environmental sustainability. 'Ensuring environmental sustainability' basicaly means keeping the environment from being damaged too much more. It also includes helping people who have very little uncontaminated water to drink get access to fresh water.

What's going on right now?
Currently the world is suffering from a lot of damage to it's rainforests

and just it's environment in general. We've lost many species of animals and plants, more are becoming extinct by the day. We're also harming the earth with our trash and pollution, which woud be a relatively easy thing to fix if we put more effort into keeping things clean.

We also want to improve the quality of the drinking water for some people. As of 2002, about 1.1 billion people didn't have access to safe drinking

water, and about 400 million of these people are children.

The lack of fresh water causes the spread of diseases such as cholera and infant diarrhoea, which cause about 5 million deaths per year, most of which are children. And in order to get safe water, people are forced to walk long distances to collect it.

Lack of water also affects the sanitation of everything, which aids in the spead of sickness.

Is there anything being done about it?
More and more people are beginning to realize how dire the situation is, and have pitched in to help. This brings us back to the 7th MDG, the goal for environmental sustainablility by 2015. But they aren't the only ones working to help spread safe drinking water. Trevor Field, a retired entrepreneur, has come up with an idea that will help a lot of people in South Africa get the water they need. It's called the 'Play Pump', and uses the energy of playing children to pump water. The play pump has a simple design - it's basicaly a merry-go-round. Each one costs about $7,000 and takes a few hours to install, which is a small price to pay compared to the safe water the people will then get. (Click here to learn more)