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rural-urban dynamics_report.pdf - Khazar University

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MDG<br />

7<br />

Ensure environmental<br />

sustainability<br />

As part of the MDGs, most countries have agreed on the<br />

principles of sustainable development, and there is international<br />

consensus to protect the environment. To this end,<br />

MDG 7 includes a target of halving the proportion of the<br />

population without access to improved sanitation and<br />

water sources by 2015. For many people in developing<br />

countries, however, access to safe water and sanitation<br />

remains a problem.<br />

Fifty-six countries have still not made enough progress<br />

to reach the target of improved water sources on time;<br />

moreover, 20 countries do not have enough data to measure<br />

their progress on this target. Sub-Saharan Africa is lagging<br />

the most, although it has improved access to clean<br />

water in <strong>rural</strong> areas from 35 percent in 1990 to 49 percent in<br />

2010; access in <strong>urban</strong> areas has not changed and remains at<br />

83 percent. East Asia and Pacific made impressive improvements<br />

in <strong>rural</strong> areas, from a starting position of only 58 percent<br />

in 1990 to 84 percent in 2010; in <strong>urban</strong> areas access was<br />

nearing 100 percent. In general, the other regions have<br />

already managed to reach access rates of more than 80 percent<br />

in <strong>urban</strong> and <strong>rural</strong> areas.<br />

Poor sanitation causes millions of people worldwide<br />

to contract illnesses. Around 1.7 million people die each<br />

year because of unsafe water and sanitation, and 90 percent<br />

of those are children under age five. Almost<br />

FIGURE 7a Access to water by region, 1990 and 2010<br />

100<br />

all sanitation-related deaths occur in the <strong>rural</strong> areas of<br />

developing countries, where sanitation problems are<br />

more severe (and access to adequate health care is less<br />

available). Some regions have made more progress than<br />

others, but even though most regions have improved<br />

access to sanitation by more than 20 percentage points,<br />

differences between <strong>urban</strong> and <strong>rural</strong> areas are<br />

considerable.<br />

South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are the only regions<br />

where progress has not been significant, with an increase in<br />

access of only 17 percentage points in South Asia and 4 percentage<br />

points in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1990 to 2010.<br />

These regions also had the worst starting positions.<br />

The increase in access to improved sanitation has not<br />

been impressive in <strong>urban</strong> areas either. The biggest advance<br />

came in the East Asia and Pacific region, where access<br />

increased about 22 percent during 1990–2010.<br />

Although the gap between <strong>urban</strong> and <strong>rural</strong> access to<br />

sanitation is still wide, it has decreased in all regions.<br />

Between 1990 and 2010, for example, the gap narrowed<br />

from 42 percent to 25 percent in Latin America and the<br />

Caribbean, and from 44 percent to 31 percent in South Asia.<br />

Most striking, in Europe and Central Asia, the gap narrowed<br />

from 20 percent in 1990 to 7 percent in 2010, suggesting<br />

that even though progress is slow, it does reach underserved<br />

<strong>rural</strong> populations.<br />

80<br />

Percentage<br />

60<br />

40<br />

20<br />

0<br />

Rural Urban<br />

East Asia &<br />

Pacific<br />

Rural Urban<br />

Europe &<br />

Central Asia<br />

Rural Urban<br />

Latin America &<br />

the Caribbean<br />

Rural Urban<br />

Middle East &<br />

North Africa<br />

Rural Urban<br />

Sub-Saharan<br />

Africa<br />

Rural Urban<br />

South Asia<br />

Starting position (1990)<br />

Latest position (2010)<br />

Source: World Development Indicators database, 2013.<br />

39

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