©UNICEF/HQ95-0304/Franck Charton
In 1990, 77 per cent of the world’s population used improved drinking water sources. Considerable progress was made between 1990 and 2002, with about
1.1 billion people gaining access to improved water sources. Global coverage in 2002 reached 83 per cent, putting the world on track to achieve the MDG target.
The region that made the greatest progress was South Asia, which increased coverage from 71 to 84 per cent between 1990 and 2002. This jump was fuelled primarily by increased use of improved water sources in India, home to over 1 billion people.
Progress in sub-Saharan Africa was also impressive: coverage increased from 49 to 58 per cent between 1990 and 2002, a nine percentage point increase. But this falls far short of the progress needed to achieve the MDG target of 75 per cent coverage by 2015.
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Obstacles to accelerating the rate of progress in sub-Saharan Africa include conflict and political instability, high rates of population growth, and low priority given to water and sanitation. What’s more, breakdown rates of water supply systems in rural Africa can be very high. Among the approaches shown to be effective in speeding up progress, despite these obstacles, are decentralizing responsibility and ownership and providing a choice of service levels to communities, based on their ability and willingness to pay.
One recent success in Africa has been steady progress in the eradication of Guinea worm disease. Through improved drinking water and other interventions, the number of people suffering from this disease has been reduced by 99 per cent: from an estimated 3.5 million cases in 1986 to less than 35,000 reported cases in 2003.