Assessing Access to Water & Sanitation

Many international organizations use access to safe drinking water and safely managed sanitation facilities as a measure of progress against poverty, disease, and death. Access to these services by every man, woman, and child is also considered a human right, not a privilege. Though progress has been made to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to people throughout the world, billions of people still lack access to these services every day.

Drinking Water Sources

According to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, 90% of the world’s population used at least basic drinking water services, increasing from 88% in 2015.¹ If current trends continue, the world will reach 94% coverage by 2030.¹

Over the first five years of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), urban drinking water coverage has stayed at 96%, and rural drinking water coverage has increased from 79% to 82%.¹ By 2020, 84 countries accomplished universal access to at least basic drinking water services.¹ However, many millions of people remain without access to basic drinking water services.

Difference between improved and unimproved drinking water sources

Improved drinking water sources should, but do not always, provide safe drinking water, and include:

• Piped household water connection
• Public standpipe
• Borehole or tubewell
• Protected dug well
• Protected spring
• Rainwater collection
• Packaged or delivered water

Unimproved drinking water sources include:

• Unprotected dug well
• Unprotected spring
• Surface water (river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal, irrigation channel)
• Vendor-provided water (cart with small tank/drum, tanker truck)
• Bottled water*
• Tanker truck water

Sanitation Facilities

Many countries face challenges in providing adequate sanitation for their entire populations, leaving people at risk for diseases related to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).  Worldwide, an estimated 1.7 billion people lack basic sanitation (about 21% of the world’s population).^1,2 Basic sanitation is defined as having access to facilities for the safe disposal of human waste (feces and urine), as well as having the ability to maintain hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection, industrial and hazardous waste management, and wastewater treatment and disposal. Around 2.3 billion people (about 29% of the world population) lack access to basic hygiene, which includes access to a handwashing station with soap and water at home.

The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal (MDG) sanitation target to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to basic sanitation by 2015 was not achieved.³ Today, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aims for everyone to have “adequate and equitable” sanitation and basic hygiene by 2030.³

Difference between improved, shared, and unimproved sanitation systems

Improved sanitation facilities usually ensure separation of human excreta from human contact, and include:

• Flush or pour-flush toilet/latrine to:
  • Piped sewer system
  • Septic tank
  • Pit latrine
• Ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine
• Pit latrine with slab
• Composting toilet

Shared sanitation facilities are otherwise acceptable improved sanitation facilities that are shared between two or more households. Shared facilities include public toilets.

Unimproved sanitation facilities do not ensure hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact and include:

• Pit latrine without a slab or platform
• Hanging latrine
• Bucket latrine
• Open defecation in fields, forests, bushes, bodies of water or other open spaces, or disposal of human feces with solid waste