UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon has appointed Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan as the new chairman of his Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, to replace Willem Alexander of the Netherlands, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters here Monday.

"The secretary-general is confident that the new chairman and the Board members will continue to vigorously address the water and sanitation challenge and mobilize action, resources and political will to improve the life of billions of people around the world," Nesirky said at a daily news briefing.

"The secretary-general stated that 2.5 billion people around the world still lack access to proper sanitation and 768 million do not have access to improved sources of water," he said.

"Between now and the 2015 deadline, the international community, governments and the private sector must accelerate progress toward the MDG water and sanitation targets," Nesirky said, referring to the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight anti-poverty goals to be achieved by the year of 2015.

Ban also emphasized that water and sanitation were "likely to figure prominently in the discussions on the sustainable development goals," said the spokesman.

The UN Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation was established in 2004 to advise the secretary-general and galvanize action of governments and international organizations to advance the global water and sanitation agenda. The focus of the Board is to help achieve the MDG targets on water and sanitation.