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An estimated $60 billion is invested in water for developing countries each year. About 90 percent of investment comes from domestic sources. The World Bank accounts for about half of all external financing, or $3 billion a year, equal to about 15 percent of all World Bank lending.
The challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015 is daunting. In February 2003, the Bank endorsed a new Water Resources Strategy aimed at providing more effective assistance to countries in order to help meet the goal.