Current status and trends
Readers of the British Medical Journal in 2007 identified sanitation as “the most important medical advance since 1840”. Despite this recognition only 61 percent of the world’s population had access to improved sanitation – that is, uses a sanitation facility that ensures hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact.
Proportion of the world’s population using an improved, shared or unimproved sanitation facility or practising open defecation
61% of the world’s population used an improved sanitation
facility in 2008
17 per cent of the population practiced open defecation – the most riskiest sanitation practice of all. A further 11 per cent of the global population used a public toilet facility or shared an improved facility with one or more households; a final 11 per cent used an unimproved sanitation facility – one that does not ensure hygienic separation of excreta from human contact.
The world is not on track to meet the MDG sanitation target as 2.6 billion people remain without improved sanitation
Between 1990 and 2008, the proportion of people without improved sanitation decreased by only 7 percentage points from 46 per cent in 1990 to 39 per cent in 2008. Without an immediate acceleration in progress, the world will not achieve even half of the MDG sanitation target by 2015. Based on current trends the world may miss the sanitation target by almost 1 billion people. To meet the target, on average an additional 217 million people per year will need to gain access to improved sanitation facilities. When compared to the average of 70 million people per year that gained access during the period 1990-2008, this is a steep challenge. It should be noted that the efforts of the International Year of Sanitation 2008, are not yet reflected in the new estimates which draw on survey and census data conducted during the period 1985 – 2008.
Trends in sanitation practices, 1990 - 2008
Source: WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation, 2010
Less than four out of ten people in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia use an improved sanitation facility. While 10 percent of the population in Southern Asia uses a public facility or shares a sanitation facility of an otherwise improved type between two or more households, the practice of sharing a toilet or latrine between households is twice as common in sub-Saharan Africa where one fifth of the population shares their toilet facility with other households. A relative large proportion of the populations in sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Asia use unimproved sanitation facilities which do not meet the minimum hygiene standards of an improved facility that hygienically separates human waste from human contact. Open defecation rates have declined in all regions.
1.1 billion people still defecate in the open
Three out of ten people in rural areas defecate in the open
Open defecation is declining in all regions: dropping from 25 per cent worldwide in 1990 to 17 percent in 2008. Open defecation is most widely practised in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa – by 44 per cent and 27 per cent of the respective populations. In stark contrast, only 4 per cent of those in Eastern Asia practise open defecation. Open defecation in rural areas decreased from 39 per cent in 1990, to 29 per cent in 2008. Urban open defecation rates have remained almost steady around 5 per cent. In all regions open defecation rates are much higher in rural areas than in urban areas, except for eastern Asia where 6 per cent of the urban population defecates in the open versus 2 per cent in rural areas.
Open defecation rates are significantly higher in rural than in urban areas
Urban/rural disparity in sanitation coverage
In 2008, 76 per cent of the urban population used an improved sanitation facility compared to only 45 per cent of the population in rural areas. More than 7 out of 10 people without improved sanitation are rural inhabitants. Yet rapid population growth in urban areas poses a significant and growing challenge: the number of urban inhabitants using improved sanitation has risen by 813 million since 1990, but has not kept pace with the urban population growth that totaled 1,090 million in the same period.
Regional and global progress towards the MDG sanitation target
References
Progress on sanitation and drinking water - 2010 update, WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, 2010