COMMENT: Losing out on sanitation MDG

One-third of the world’s population will remain without access to improved sanitation in 2015, according to a joint World Health Organisation (WHO)/United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report.

It says at the current rate of progress, the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of the 1990 population without sanitation will be missed by eight percent, or half a billion people.

With less than three years to reach the MDG deadline, the WHO and UNICEF report has called for a final push to meet the sanitation target.

The report however noted that almost two-thirds (64%) of the world’s population has access to improved sanitation facilities, an increase of 1.9 billion people since 1990.

Approximately, it said, about 2.5 billion people lack access to an improved sanitation facility; of these, 761 million use public or shared sanitation facilities and 693 million use facilities that do not meet minimum standards of hygiene.

It said a striking disparity still exists between those living in rural areas and those who live in cities; with urban dwellers making up three-quarters of those with access to piped water supplies at home.

“Rural communities comprise 83 percent of the global population without access to improved drinking water sources and 71 percent of those living without sanitation: faster progress on sanitation is possible.”

Since the MDGs are benchmarks toward attaining improved conditions for humanity, drawn up by UN experts, the situation on sanitation is very revealing. There is still a lot of work to be done in attaining the standards demanded by the MDGs.

The statistics are clear: much more needs to be done to attain anything near the targets. The developing world will, no doubt, be the majority of those without the facilities as indicated by statistics about the disparity between the rural and urban dwellers.

The report is a good indication to Government and planners to indicate the level of progress, and how much needs to be done to meet those targets. Since the bulk of our population resides in the rural setting, the trend is clear.

This Paper acknowledges that some progress has been made -- but not enough to meet the targets set. Thus, let us focus more attention on providing better conditions for our people -- which is the obvious challenge.