The seventh of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) commits the international community to halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The baseline set for most of the MDG targets, including that on water and sanitation, is 1,990. As 2002 is the last year for which comprehensive data are available it can be considered the halfway mark towards achieving the 2015 MDG deadline. Based on 2002 data, is the world on course for achieving this goal?

A report prepared by the World Health Organization/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) presents a report on progress made towards fulfilling the MDG commitment.

Encouragingly, with 83 percent coverage, the world is set to meet the drinking water MDG. This progress is tempered, however, by slow progress in sub-Saharan Africa – where 42 percent of the population is still unserved – and by little action on sanitation in most developing regions. The proportion of the world’s population with improved sanitation has increased by only nine percent since 1990. If the 1990-2002 trend holds, the world will miss the sanitation target by half a billion people.

The JMP shows that:

• Slow progress in Africa is worsened by conflict, political instability, high population growth, frequent breakdown of water supply systems in rural areas and low political commitment.
• Many of the 2.6 billion people without improved sanitation are hard to reach: families living in remote rural areas and urban slums, those displaced by war and famine and families vulnerable to poverty and disease.
• Though major progress was made in South Asia from 1990 to 2002 little more than a third of its population are currently using improved sanitation. In sub-Saharan Africa coverage is 36 percent.
• Over half of those without improved sanitation – nearly 1.5 billion people – live in China and India.
• The difference between urban and rural areas in sanitation is acute: only 31 percent of rural inhabitants in developing regions have access to any type of improved sanitation compared to 73 percent of urban dwellers.
• Without renewed momentum, close to 2.4 billion people will be without improved sanitation in 2015, almost as many as there are today.

All who lack adequate sanitation facilities are exposed to unpleasant and unhealthy daily routines. However, the impact on women and girls is greatest. In their household roles they may more readily transmit disease-causing agents from exposed faeces to other family members. Restricted toilet opportunities cause discomfort and increase the likelihood of health problems such as urinary tract infection and chronic constipation as well as causing unnecessary mental stress. New mothers, sick and pregnant women particularly, suffer from lack of sanitation.

Investment in drinking water and sanitation brings high dividends. A recent cost-benefit analysis of the social, educational and health benefits of water and sanitation shows that every US$ 1 invested would yield an economic return of between $ 3 and $ 34, depending on the region.

If the MDG target is to be achieved, the JMP reports that:

• an additional investment of around US$ 11.3 billion per year, over and above current spending is required
• from now until 2015, greater effort must be made to reach poor people and those in rural areas whose deprivation is hidden behind national averages
• household surveys should be modified to become more useful to policymakers, able to measure gender disparities and assess safety and quality of drinking water.

A number of low-income countries have made tremendous gains in expanding services, despite rapid population growth and economic stagnation. They are proving that rapid progress is indeed possible, and that the goals, while ambitious, are within the world’s capabilities.

Source(s):
‘Meeting the MDG drinking water and sanitation target: a mid-term assessment of progress’ by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, UNICEF and the World Health Organization, August 2004 Full document.

Funded by: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

id21 Research Highlight: 15 June 2005

Further Information:
Joint Monitoring Programme for Water and Sanitation
World Health Organization
Water, Sanitation and Health
20, Avenue Appia
1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland

Contact the contributor: who@wssinfo.org

WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme

United Nations Children's Fund
WES Section
3 United Nations Plaza
New York 10017
USA

Contact the contributor: unicef@wssinfo.org ; wesinfo@unicef.org

World Health Organisation

United Nations Children's Fund

Other related links:
Water for Life: Making it happen

Millennium Project Taskforce on Water and Sanitation

The challenges of financing sanitation

Water and sanitation for all: where are we now?

As urban sanitation needs go unmet, is it time to respond strategically?

UNDP and the Millennium Development Goals