Progress on sanitation and drinking-water : 2010 update

This report presents the current status and trends in 209 countries or territories towards reaching the drinking-water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target, along with an assessment as to what these trends reveal. The report includes information from household surveys and censuses completed during the period 1985–2008. A record number of nearly 300 datasets were added to the global database for this year’s report. Importantly, the newer data have not yet registered the impact of the International Year of Sanitation (2008), which it is hoped will make a significant difference to the rate of progress towards the MDG sanitation target. The report provides the clearest picture to date of the current use of improved sanitation facilities and improved sources of drinking-water throughout the world. Despite the world’s population being almost equally divided between urban and rural dwellers, the vast majority without access to water and sanitation live in rural areas. Seven out of ten people without basic sanitation are rural inhabitants and more than eight out of ten people without access to improved drinking-water sources live in rural areas. A similar disparity is found between the poor and non-poor. A comparison between the richest and poorest 20% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa reveals that the richest are more than twice as likely to use an improved drinking-water source and almost five times more likely to use improved sanitation facilities. Although there is insufficient data at present, country data available confirms similar disparities elsewhere. The report is aimed to be used by policy-makers, donors, governmental and nongovernmental agencies to decide what needs to be done and where to focus their efforts to achieve these goals.