En stribe nye lande har opfyldt 2015 Målene om rent drikkevand og ordentlige sanitære forhold, men en milliard mennesker må stadig forrette deres nødtørft i det fri og de fattigste står næsten altid sidst i køen til at opleve forbedringer – også stigende ulighed på dette felt.
DUBAI, 8 May 2014 (IRIN): Inequalities in access to clean drinking water and sanitation persist and in some cases are getting worse, although close to two billion people globally have got clean drinking water and sanitation since 1990, according to new data from the World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund.
This year’s “Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation report” shows significant improvements in water and sanitation access in most parts of the world since 1990, but says the number of people without adequate sanitation in towns and cities has increased, as gains have failed to keep pace with urban population growth.
“The data in the report shows a huge disparity between different parts of country populations, and it is something we will see more of in the coming years unless we start to deal with it,” Chris Williams told IRIN.
He is the executive director of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, a UN-hosted body that runs the Global Sanitation Fund.
In some cases, “progress on sanitation has often increased inequality by primarily benefiting wealthier people,” says the report, with open defecation (forrette sin nødtørft i det fri) levels for example in Mozambique varying from 13 percent among the rural rich (richest 20 percent) to 96 percent among the rural poor (poorest 20 percent).
“We have known for a long time that these global figures mask inequalities between rich and poor, urban and rural, and regions and countries,” said WaterAid’s deputy head of policy, Tom Slaymaker, adding:
“We have made steady progress but we need to see who is being left behind.”
Residents in towns and cities on average get better water and sanitation, but services decline sharply when it comes to informal settlements and slums.
Five facts from the 2014 Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation report
* Almost four billion people, more than half the world’s population, have a piped (rørlagt) water connection to their homes.
* Nearly two billion people since 1990 have gained access to “improved sanitation” (through a system that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact). In the same period, more than two billion gained access to an improved water source.
* By 2012, 166 countries had met the drinking water target in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs = 2015 Målene), 77 had reached the sanitation target, and 56 countries had met both targets.
* In 1990, 95 percent of people in urban areas had access to improved water, compared to 62 percent of people in rural areas. By 2012, those figures had risen to 96 percent and 82 percent respectively.
* Open defecation has decreased from 24 percent to 14 percent in the period, but it is still practiced by around one billion people, mainly in rural areas.
Nigeria´s astonishing case
Nigeria saw the largest increase in the number of people defecating in the open from 23 million in 1990 to 39 million in 2012 (as the country’s population nearly doubled).
Water experts hope tackling inequality will be a key emphasis of the post-2015 global targets, dubbed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs = Dagsorden 2030).
“We need a clear focus on inequality – it is relatively easy to halve the numbers without clean water and sanitation, but it is much harder to achieve universal access,” Slaymaker told IRIN.
Dirty water is a leading cause of death and ill health through water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid (tyfus).
MDGs (2015 Målene)
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/report/100059/wash-gains-mask-growing-inequalities
Man kan hente (downloade) hele rapporten fra
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/2014/jmp-report/en
