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Water and Sanitation
- Lack of clean water and sanitation is the main reason disease transmitted by feces are
so common in developing countries. Contaminated drinking water and an inadequate supply of
water cause diseases that account for 10 percent of the total burden of disease in
developing countries.
- At the end of the 1980s—which was declared the International Drinking Water Supply
and Sanitation Decade—most people in poor regions still lacked adequate sanitation.
Access to safe water
- In 1997, approximately 1.5 billion million people in low and middle-income economies
lacked access to safe water supplies. And in Sub-Saharan Africa fewer than half the
population has access.
- Some countries have shown great improvement:
Côte d’Ivoire: from 20 percent in 1980 to 72 percent in 1996
Benin: from 14 percent in 1985 to 72 percent in 1995
Pakistan: in 1996 48 million more people had access to safe water than in 1980.
- But too many countries still have very low rates of access to safe water:
Eritrea: 7%
Cambodia: 13%
Mozambique: 24%
Paraguay: 39%
Access to sanitation
- In 1996, approximately 1.4 billion low-income and over 400 million middle-income people
lacked access to sanitary facilities.
- At the present rate of progress, one-third of all low-income people—over 900
million—will still lack adequate sanitation in the year 2015.
- In many of the world’s cities, households lack sewerage connections: in one out of
four major cities surveyed by UN Habitat, fewer than 10 percent of households had
connections.
Next: What the Poor Say |
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