The United Nations Children Fund greeted 2008 by attempting to steer more attention towards global sanitation needs. “Improving sanitation for an estimated 2.6 billion people, including 980 million children, is one of the single biggest development challenges the world faces today,” said UNICEF. U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon has described sanitation as one of the most “overlooked and underserved human needs,” and thus declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation in the hope of guaranteeing environmental sustainability by promoting increased access to safe water and basic sanitation. (Source: South Africa: Unicef Hails International Sanitation Year/BuaNews)