Hungary wants access to clean drinking water as independent development goal

Hungary, as co-chair of a working group on the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), wants access to drinking water to become an independent development goal, foreign ministry state secretary Peter Wintermantel said on Thursday.

Wintermantel met European Union development officials in Brussels. They discussed plans for the period following 2015 when the Millennium Development Goals embraced by 189 countries in 2000 expires.

The working team operating under the UN's auspices and co-chaired by Hungary and Kenya will submit a proposal on the SDGs in September 2014.    

Wintermantel said the 110 national delegations at the Water World Summit held in Budapest in October expressed their readiness to support the Hungarian proposal on making access to clean water an independent goal.  

Wintermantel added that only parts of the Millennium Development Goals will have been fulfilled by 2015.