MADRID, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon Monday called for greater efforts worldwide to achieve the water and sanitation targets as set by world leaders in 2000.

    He made the call while addressing Expo 2008 on world's water and sustainable development scheduled from June 14 to Sept. 14 in the northern Spanish city of Zaragoza.

    "There are still more than 1 billion people lacking access to safe drinking water, and 2.5 billion lacking access to basic sanitation facilities," he said.

    "The international community, national governments and the private and non-profit sectors still have much work to do between now and 2015," Ban said.

    2015 is the year that the number of people without access to safe drinking water should be halved as set by world leaders in 2000 in their anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

    "There has been progress toward achieving the water and sanitation MDGs, but not enough," the UN chief said, noting the number of people without access to drinking water and sanitary service have been reduced by only 10 percent so far.

    The challenges include that many public water utilities in the developing countries are not financially sustainable, the pace of institutional and policy reform in the water sector is slow and private sector investment in the water sector is not forthcoming, he listed.