According to the foreword to the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report launched on April 12 by Michel Jarraud, the chairperson of UN Water, an estimated 780 million people still un-served are increasingly hard to reach and the 2015 Millennium Development Goal target for sanitation is not on track.
"There are 2.5 billion people with no access to improved sanitation.
This 2012 UN-Water GLAAS provides further reason for vigilance; resources are neither targeted nor apparently sufficient to sustain routine operation and maintenance requirements. Thus, there is serious risk of slipping backwards on gains already made," Jarraud stated.
" The analysis emerging from the UN-Water GLAAS also helps to identify the reasons behind the disparities in access to sanitation and drinking water among different regions, communities and income groups."
The GLAAS report further added that with the danger of slippage against the MDG target being a real one, countries need to have more emphasis on ensuring adequate financing and human resources to sustain the existing infrastructure and expand sanitation, drinking water and hygiene services.
"Focusing on effective managing assets to sustain services can be as important as focusing on new infrastructure," the report stated.
The report states that despite the several financial crisis faced by many high-income countries, aid for sanitation and drinking water continued to rise, while targeting to basic MDG-type services is improving.
The GLAAS report which has data from 74 countries states that despite the impressive global gains, most countries were falling short on meeting their own national water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) commitments with 83 per cent and 70 per cent of countries reportedly falling significantly behind the trends required for sanitation and drinking water.
By Edwin Mbulo@Post Zambia
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