This report details global progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for drinking water and sanitation, and what these trends suggest for the remainder of the Water for Life Decade 2005-2015. the report also introduces a separate assessment of global, regional and country progress using the 'sanitation ladder' - a new way of analysing sanitation practices that highlights trends in using improved, shared and unimproved sanitation facilities and the trend in open defecation. Trends in drinking water coverage are presented in a similar format. They are disaggregated in a 'drinking-water ladder', which shows the percentage of the world population that uses piped connections into a dwelling, plot or yard; other improved water sources; and unimproved sources. New data are also presented on the time taken to collect drinking water. the data show the proportion of people that spend more than 30 minutes on a single water-hauling trip and are thus likely to compromise their daily water consumption. in addition, survey data on who usually fetches water are presented to show how this burden is distributed among women, men, girls and boys. Finally, the report provides a new perspective on progress. the country, regional and global estimates include a statistic on the proportion of the population that gained access to improved drinking-water and sanitation since 1990.