African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

creased by roughly the same number of inhabitants.This reduced the increase in coverage toonly a minimal 1 per cent (Figs. 5.22 and 5.23).From 1990 to 2002, the percentage of peopleserved with improved sanitation facilities in sub-Saharan Africa rose by 4 per cent as shown infigures 5.24 and 5.25. Some 85 million morepeople gained access to improved sanitation,most of them in urban areas. A high demographicincrease of over 181 million people offsetthe percentage increase in the number of peopleserved (WHO/UNICEF JMP 2004).According to MDG Task Force on Water andSanitation, 2005, in some African countriesprogress towards meeting the MDG access-towatergoal is poor, stalled or reversing. Thesecountries include Ethiopia, Mauritania, Madagascar,Guinea, and Togo. Countries with betterprospects for meeting the goal but where challengesare still formidable include Uganda, Malawi,Cameroon, the Niger, Nigeria, Namibia,Côte d’Ivoire, and South Africa Many of thevery poor African countries such as Sierra Leoneand Burkina Faso could also be included inthis list for which there were insufficient data. Interms of access to sanitation, the African countrieswhere progress in this area is poor, stalledor reversing include Ethiopia, the Niger, Benin,Central African Republic, Mauritania, Madagascar,Guinea, Togo, Nigeria, the Sudan and Mali.Countries with better chances of meeting thegoal but where the challenges are still substantialinclude Chad, Namibia, Côte d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe,Botswana, Malawi, Cameroon, South Africa,and Burundi (ibid).WATER FOR MEETING BASIC NEEDSTable 5.2: Access to improved drinkingwater sources in Africa, 2002Table 5.3: Access to improved sanitationin Africa, 2002Source: Adapted from WHO/UNICEF JMP 2004.During the same period, northern Africa alsosaw an 8 per cent increase in the number of peopleprovided with improved sanitation facilities.In this part of Africa, 31 million more peoplegained access to sanitation, one third of themin rural areas and the other two thirds in urbanareas (WHO/UNICEF JMP 2004). The disparitiesin water supply and sanitation betweenthe northern Africa subregion and sub-SaharanAfrica are shown in tables 5.2 and 5.3, respectively.Those for some other African countriesare shown in figure 5.26. Figure 5.27 gives theexample of Cameroon107