SOUTH AFRICA: Almost half the people in sub-Saharan Africa drink unsafe water, writes Joe Humphreys in Pretoria
Almost half the population of sub-Saharan Africa is still drinking unsafe water, and two-thirds continues to use primitive and disease-breeding sanitation.
That is according to a major report published today on the world's progress - or lack of it - towards meeting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Unicef study found that between the years 1990 and 2004 global coverage of safe drinking water rose from 78 per cent to 83 per cent, and of sanitation from 49 per cent to 59 per cent.
However, the gains were almost exclusively in Latin America, the Middle East, parts of Asia, and north Africa. Central and southern Africa were "not on track" to meet the MDG target of halving the proportion of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015, the report said.
It is estimated that unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation and hygiene claims the lives of more than 1½ million children under five from diarrhoea each year.
Pneumonia, trachoma and worm infestations are also associated with poor water supply. Describing the situation in west and central Africa as "of particular urgency", the report said there were recurrent outbreaks of cholera in both urban and rural parts of the regions.
Apart from spreading disease, poor water and sanitation hindered the education of children, and particularly girls, the report said. "Girls sometimes do not attend school during menstruation or drop out at puberty because of a lack of sanitation facilities that are separate for girls and boys in schools."
Vanessa Tobin, one of the authors of the report, said there were "particular problems in Islamic countries" arising from inadequate facilities, as girls might be expected to avoid communal toilets. She noted water and education departments in developing countries should work together on the problem, adding Kenya was a "good example" in this regard.
The report found that efforts to meet MDG targets on water and sanitation had been hindered in certain regions by bad governance and population growth. Ms Tobin added there were questions surrounding the role of climate change, with the UN Development Programme estimating an increase in the number of people living in "water-stressed" countries from 1.7 billion today to 5 billion in 2025.
The study is one of a series of MDG "report cards" compiled by Unicef to establish whether commitments made by world leaders in September 2000 to dramatically cut poverty are being met.
If current trends continued, the world was on track to meet its MDG target of 89 per cent drinking-water coverage by 2015, "though more than a billion people were without access to improved drinking-water sources in 2004 - and keeping pace with population growth remains a major challenge," the report said.As for sanitation, progress has been slower, and meeting the relevant target appeared a "distant" possibility.
Sanitation is defined by UN agencies as a facility that reduces the chances of people coming into contact with human excreta.