THIS IS PROGRESS?

Some supporters of capitalism claim that for all its shortcomings it is at least a progressive society, but this report would seem to contradict that notion. "A global plan to halve by 2015 the number of people without access to sanitation is failing so badly that some of the world's poorest countries will not have this basic necessity for another 200 years. Almost 900 million people worldwide live without access to clean water and more than two and a half billion people live without adequate sanitation - more than a third of the world's population. But, says the charity WaterAid in a report due out this week, aid given to solve this problem is not reaching the people who need it most." (Independent, 13 November) It is hardly a progressive society that condemns millions of people to live without clean water for another 200 years. RD