1.3 The current situation in water supply and sanitation2

² DFID uses the term 'sanitation' in its broadest sense, encompassing all aspects of personal, household and public excreta and waste disposal (on site and waterborne) and cleanliness. This sense applies throughout this paper.

1.3.1 In common with other agencies, DFID uses statistics produced by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) based on data collected within the countries concerned. Table 3 and Table 4 summarise current water supply and sanitation coverage using the JMP's “Global Assessment 2000 - Status of the water supply and sanitation sector” (N.B. 1999 figures)³ (See Annex 2).

³ These figures differ slightly from those given for water supply in Annex 1, mainly due to the different methods of grouping countries into regions.

1.3.2 Table 3 presents the data subdivided by geographical regions. It shows that over 1 billion people around the world lack access to a safe water supply and over 2.4 billion lack adequate sanitation. A substantial majority of these people live in Asia.

1.3.3 Figures 1 (a) and (b) present the water supply and sanitation figures from Table 3 for the three regions with the most people without access to water and sanitation, compared with figures for 1980. Subject to the cautions on interpreting the figures as explained in 1.3.5 below, good progress has been made in water supply, notably in Asia where the population with access to water has increased rapidly over the past 15 years. Indeed, some of the greatest achievements of the last 20 years have been made in India, where the population with access to water is reported to have increased from 41% to 88%. In Africa, by contrast, over one third of the population remains without access to water.

Fig 1a: Improvements in water supply coverage by region, 1980-1999

Source: JMP

Fig 1b: Improvements in sanitation coverage by region, 1980-1999

Source: JMP

Table 3: Water supply and sanitation coverage by region, 1999

Region	Population (millions)	Percentage with Access		Number Unserved (millions)
		Water	Sanitation	Water	Sanitation
Africa	784	62	60	302	318
Asia	3,682	81	48	692	1,916
Latin America and Caribbean	519	83	76	89	127
Oceania	30	87	93	4	2
Europe	728	96	92	25	55
North America	309	100	100	0	0
Total	6,054	82	60	1,113	2,418

Source: JMP

1.3.4 The figures for sanitation are worse than those for water in all regions, with Asia, despite apparent progress, containing 1.9 billion of the 2.4 billion people lacking adequate sanitation. The pace of improvement in sanitation has been slower than in water, and the numbers remaining unserved are much larger.

1.3.5 Table 4 disaggregates the figures for urban and rural areas (as defined by the JMP) for the same three regions, and shows the current figures alongside those from previous decades. It appears to show a pattern of steady progress over the last three decades in both water supply and sanitation; for sanitation in particular it shows more encouraging progress than most agencies had previously presumed. However, in studying this table to discern trends over the last 30 years, there are difficulties. First, the data collection methods have changed from supply data, estimated by officials of the agencies responsible, to consumption data obtained through household surveys from the people themselves, triangulated with the conventional supply data. Secondly, the definitions of safe water and adequate sanitation in specific countries have changed⁴. Thirdly, many countries failed to report in the earlier years, and many developing countries, such as the central Asian republics, were previously considered part of a developed country - for example, the Soviet Union.

⁴ Sanitation in China is a good example of this change. Whereas 81% of the rural population were reportedly served in 1990, the corresponding figure for 1999 is only 24%. The change reflects a substantial tightening of the definition of adequate sanitation by the Chinese Government.

Table 4: Percentage water supply and sanitation coverage (for Africa, Asia and Latin America combined), subdivided into urban and rural, 1970-1999

	1970	1980	1990	1999
Urban water	65	74	82	91
Rural water	13	33	50	69
Urban sanitation	54	50	67	80
Rural sanitation	9	13	20	32

Source: JMP

1.3.6 As to the comparisons between urban and rural areas, urban coverage appears higher for both water and sanitation. But over the next few decades almost all the world's population growth will be in urban areas in developing countries. Provision of urban water and sanitation will, therefore, become increasingly difficult and urgent. The problems are complex and involve many issues beyond the traditional aspects of water supply and basic sanitation. For example, some of the most vulnerable people lack legal title to the land they occupy and have little or no political voice or community organisation. Most poor urban dwellers, unlike most poor rural dwellers, must pay cash for their water and sanitation services. So, millions of poor urban dwellers are suffering from wholly inadequate water supply and sanitation facilities. Although in many places water vendors have responded to the demand for water and fill a vital role, they operate with minimal regulation on either price or quality and often charge exorbitant unit prices for what may be untreated water⁵. As to sanitation, very few agencies have responded to the needs of the urban poor.

⁵ The DFID document 'Public Private Partnership - the Way Ahead' presents the comparison of water prices charged by vendors to prices charged by public utilities. In the 10 sample cities the cost of a unit of water from vendors was always much higher-from 4 to 100 times, with a median of about 12 - than the cost of a unit of water from a piped city supply.

1.3.7 Small towns need particular mention as they are often neglected because they fall between the definitions of rural and urban programmes. Technically, the water supply and sanitation needs of small towns are often not amenable to simple solutions such as drawing water from a spring or borehole, or digging a simple pit-latrine. Managerially, the water and sanitation services may exceed the capacity of community-based organisations, but the towns may come under the authority of district or provincial agencies that are not always efficient or responsive to local needs. Others may have municipal government structures whose technical and managerial capacity is often limited. Thus in small towns, neither formal municipal nor community-based agencies may be currently able to meet needs. So we must either build their capacity to do so or find other forms of service provision, such as the local private sector.