The non-governmental South American Water Association, which met here last week, has called on the region's government's to take part in a forum this September in Peru. “We are sponsoring a gathering of civil society and government to elaborate water resources management plans, with an eye to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to access to water and basic sanitation,” Yazenia Frontado, of the association's Venezuelan committee, told Tierramérica.

One of the MDGs, adopted by the United Nations in 2000, is to halve the proportion of the population who lack access to clean water and sanitation services by 2015.