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Water and Sanitation
Relief in Iraq
Five million people without
access to safe water in Iraq -
water related diseases
threaten childrens' lives
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Beyond the focus of public attention, an unseen emergency continues to unfold. It doesn't fell dozens all at once, like a bomb, or carry away whole towns in the blink of an eye, like a flood. Rather, it kills its victims - mostly infants and small children - largely unnoticed, spiriting them away one by one from rural villages and urban slums in every corner of the developing world.
©UNICEF/HQ02-0580/Jim Holmes
Every day, this unremitting but seemingly invisible disaster claims the lives of more than 3,900 children under five, according to WHO. And for every child that dies, countless others, including older children and adults, suffer from poor health, diminished productivity and missed opportunities for education.
What is behind this wholesale loss of life and potential? It is the absence of something that nearly every reader of this report takes for granted, something basic, unremarkable, commonplace: toilets and other forms of improved sanitation and safe drinking water.
The good news is that, with 83 per cent coverage, the world is on track to meet the MDG target for drinking water. The news is tempered, however, by slow progress in sub-Saharan Africa and stalled action on sanitation in most developing regions. An estimated 2.6 billion people are without improved sanitation facilities. And if the 1990-2002 trend holds, the world will miss the sanitation target by half a billion people.
The figures and trends in this report, based on national surveys and censuses, indicate how far we are from achieving the sanitation target. But they also reveal that a number of low-income countries have made tremendous gains in expanding services, even in the face of rapid population growth and economic stagnation. The lesson that can be drawn from these countries is that rapid progress is indeed possible, and that the goals, while ambitious, are within our grasp.
Meeting the sanitation target will require that an additional 1 billion urban dwellers and almost 900 million people in often remote rural communities are able to use improved sanitation services. Accomplishing this by 2015 will be no small feat. But it will also be a testament to what the world can achieve with a clear vision and with the focused will and determination of every country on earth.
Getting on track to meet the target in both drinking water and sanitation will mean better health, longer lives and greater dignity for billions of the worldâs poorest people. It will also make a significant contribution to the achievement of other Millennium Development Goals.