at the time the world health report estimated that achieving the millennium goal of halving by the year the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water would yield a gain of approximately million dalys worldwide achieving universal access evaluated at coverage of improved water supply and basic sanitation plus disinfection at point of use would result in an additional million dalys a catastrophic drought in meant that water availability dropped from litres per capita per day to litre per capita per day and triggered a cholera epidemic this in turn led to the construction of a canal to bring water which allowed augmenting water supply to litres a day after its completion in