The 4th South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) of SAARC countries started in Colombo, Sri Lanka today. The 4 days conference which will be held from today to 7th April was declared open by Sri Lanka’s Minister of Water Supply and Drainage Services Mr. Dinesh Gunawardene. As the deadline of meeting the Millennium Development Goals nears (2015), south Asian nations got together here to deliberate on strategies to reach sanitation facilities to the uncovered 700 million plus people in the region. India has the largest uncovered population in the world.’According to the United Nations, 2.6 billion people in the world do not have improved sanitation facilities. The most disconcerting fact is that 72 per cent of this 2.6 billion live in Asia,’ said Dinesh Gunawardena, Sri Lankan Minister for Water Supply and Drainage, at the inaugural session of the fourth South Asian Conference on Sanitation ‘The MDG clock is ticking away. It is very easy to become discouraged,’ said Daniel Toole, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia. But since there was a renewed sense of urgency, all the stake-holders had to work harder to achieve the goals, he added. Over 300 delegates from the seven SAARC countries in the region, about 100 delegates from Sri Lanka and representatives from U.N. organization such as Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, UNICEF, WHO and several Non Governmental Organisations are attending this 4 days Conference,.The Executive Director of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), Mr. Jon Lane, Regional Director of UNICEF South Asia, Mr. Daniel Toole, Country Representative of WHO in Sri Lanka Dr. F.R.Mehta also addressed the inaugural meeting.