Australian Development Gateway

The Australian Development Gateway (ADG) strives to support members of the development community in their efforts to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region. The site has been created with participation from members of government, private, academia and non-government organisations. User feedback mechanisms have been incorporated to guide future directions of the site. The site is optimised for low bandwidth access to enable the widest participation throughout the Asia Pacific region.

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Sanitation

Progress for children: a report card on water and sanitation (pdf 1.23mb)

This report examines the progress of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7 aim to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

It is estimated that unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation and hygiene every year claim the lives of more than 1.5 million children under five years old from diarrhoea.

The report finds that while the world is on track to meet the MDG target for access to safe drinking water, it needs to double the rate of improvement since 1990 in order to meet the sanitation target.

The report also highlights ongoing disparities in safe drinking water and sanitation between urban and rural populations. Globally, access to improved drinking water sources is 95% in urban areas, compared with 73% in rural areas. The urban divide in drinking water is at its widest in sub-Saharan Africa where 81% of people in urban areas are served compared with 41% in rural areas.

 

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