Sanitation was a poor performer in the last round of assessments of international development goals, falling well short of the Millennium Development Goal of reducing the proportion of the world’s population without access to basic sanitation by half. It missed that target by nearly 700 million people, more than double the population of America.
Now the development community is exploring ways to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen when it comes to the new Sustainable Development Goals, with their official target of bringing “access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all” and ending open defecation by 2030.
Latest figures reveal there is a long way to go. Currently 167 of 183 countries do not have universal coverage of sanitation facilities, according to 2015 statistics from the World Health Organization. That translates as 2.4 billion people without access to improved sanitation facilities and 946 million people without any facilities at all, according to U.N. figures.
Read more on the World Toilet Day:
► Beyond the SDGs: How to deliver water and sanitation to everyone, everywhere
► Opinion: SDG indicators must match the ambition of the goals
► Implementation, budget changes needed for Swachh Barat to work
► A tale of clean cities: How to solve the urban sanitation challenge
About the author
Sophie Edwards
Sophie Edwards is a Devex Contributing Reporter covering global education, water and sanitation, and innovative financing, along with other topics. She has previously worked for NGOs, and the World Bank, and spent a number of years as a journalist for a regional newspaper in the U.K. She has a master's degree from the Institute of Development Studies and a bachelor's from Cambridge University.
