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Commentary

Nature 452, 283-284 (20 March 2008) | doi:10.1038/452283a; Published online 19 March 2007

Open Innovation Challenges

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Improving on haves and have-nots

Jamie Bartram1

  1. Jamie Bartram is coordinator of the water, sanitation and health programme at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

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All-or-nothing targets for global access to basic amenities such as drinking water and sanitation are outdated. The time has come, says Jamie Bartram, for a more fluid approach.

No one can deny the profound effects that water and sanitation can have on public health. In nineteenth-century Europe, municipalities made unprecedented investments in public drinking-water and sanitation to control outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and other infectious diseases.