rural-urban dynamics_report.pdf - Khazar University
rural-urban dynamics_report.pdf - Khazar University
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