Global Progress and Inequalities in Water and Sanitation

Clean water and sanitation will continue to be one of the most urgent public health concerns in the world in 2025. A WHO-UNICEF report identifies major progress since 2000 but notes that deep inequalities continue to erode the progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) of universal access by 2030.

Current Progress in Sanitation

• One point two billion individuals acquired access to safely managed sanitation under the years 2015 and 2024.
• It doubled its global coverage to 58% and almost 60% of the population currently has access to hygienic toilets and safe waste disposal.
• In developed countries, coverage is practically universal and open defecation has been eliminated in Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, with Northern Africa and Western Asia being in close reach.
• Nonetheless, the rates of open defecation in low-income countries remain fourfold that of the rest of the world.

Access and Gaps to Drinking Water.

• Coverage of safely managed drinking water increased by 74% in 2024 as compared to 68% in 2015.
• Rural access rose by 50 to 60 percent, and urban access stood at 83 percent.
• Regardless of these gains, individuals in least developed nations are more than twice as likely to have no safe water relative to global averages.
• There are still inequalities between urban and rural regions but the countryside is closing the gap.

Persistent Inequalities in WASH

Inequality is even bigger than national averages:

• The widest gaps are experienced by rural population, indigenous people, ethnic minorities, children and people with disabilities.
• Women and girls have an extra burden of wasting hours a day gathering water.
• Areas with poor infrastructure like roads are grossly under served.
• Smaller and marginalised groups usually do not feature in national statistics, which highlights the importance of improved local data collection.

Acceleration Needed for SDG 6

In order to have universal access by 2030:

• The middle-income countries in the lower middle portion are forced to increase the rates of progress by twice.
• Countries with low incomes require a sevenfold expansion in water availability and an eighteenfold expansion of sanitation as well as hygiene services.
• Millions of people will not have access to this fundamental human right without immediate action that will include everyone.

Menstrual Health Concerns

The report also defines