United Nations A/RES/58/217 General Assembly Distr.: General 9 February 2004 Fifty-eighth session Agenda item 95 Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 23 December 2003 [on the report of the Second Committee (A/58/485)] 58/217. International Decade for Action, “Water for Life”, 2005-2015 The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 55/196 of 20 December 2000, by which it proclaimed the year 2003 the International Year of Freshwater, Emphasizing that water is critical for sustainable development, including environmental integrity and the eradication of poverty and hunger, and is indispensable for human health and well-being, Recalling the provisions of Agenda 21, 1 the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 adopted at its nineteenth special session, 2 the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (“Johannesburg Plan of Implementation”) 3 and the decisions of the Economic and Social Council and of the Commission on Sustainable Development at its sixth session 4 relating to freshwater, Reaffirming the internationally agreed development goals on water and sanitation, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, 5 and determined to achieve the goal to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water, and a similar goal set out in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation to halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation, Taking note of the contents of the United Nations World Water Development Report: Water for People, Water for Life, 6 a joint project of twenty-three specialized _______________ 1 Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and corrigenda), vol. I: Resolutions adopted by the Conference, resolution 1, annex II. 2 Resolution S-19/2, annex. 3 Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August-4 September 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.03.II.A.1 and corrigenda), chap. I, resolution 2, annex. 4 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1998, Supplement No. 9 (E/1998/29). 5 See resolution 55/2. 6 United Nations publication, Sales No. E.03.II.A.2. 03 50754