Nairobi — While opening an international health conference in Nairobi on Monday, the President cast doubts on whether Kenya would achieve the much heralded Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Specifically, he was worried that no significant progress had been made in reducing the number of women who die while giving birth.

This gloomy observation comes at a time the country is witnessing the re-emergence of polio, measles and an outbreak of cholera.

The Minister for Public Health and Sanitation agrees that the challenges of MDGs are indeed huge, but she is optimistic that they can be overcome if the Treasury raises the ministry's budget dramatically as recommended by global standards.

It may seem difficult to mobilise such funding, but failure to do so would be an even much more costly mistake. It is instructive that the cholera outbreak can be blamed on the failure to meet past targets for the provision of safe drinking water for all.

If this target had been met, the current prescription for people to observe high hygiene standards to avoid contracting cholera or swine flu could sound less hollow, simply because it is impossible to maintain cleanliness without water.

Whatever the cost, we as a country must not entertain the possibility of failure to achieve the MDGs because the consequences could be too painful.