At the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development, then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announced a U.S. commitment to the global 2015 Millennium Development Goals (now the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals). One goal was to reduce by half the number of people without access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation.
To help achieve this MDG goal and beyond, in 2003 several leading US-based non-governmental organizations working in water and sanitation formed the Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization to offer sustainable solutions through advocacy and influence, shared knowledge, and collaborative programming.