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TitleSanitation : a global estimate of sewerage connections without treatment and the resulting impact on MDG progress
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsBaum, R, Luh, J, Bartram, J
Paginationp. 1994 - 2000
Date Published2013-01-16
PublisherAmerican Chemical Society, ACS
Place PublishedS.l.
Keywordssanitation, sewage works, sewerage, statistics
Abstract

Progress toward the sanitation component of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Target 7c was reassessed to account for the need to protect communities and the wider population from exposure to human excreta. Classified are connections to sewerage as “improved sanitation” only if the sewage was treated before discharge to the environment. Sewerage connection data was available for 167 countries in 2010; of these, 77 had published data on sewage treatment prevalence. We developed an empirical model to estimate sewage treatment prevalence for 47 additional countries. Estimated is that in 2010, 40% of the global population (2.8 billion people) used improved sanitation, as opposed to the estimate of 62% (4.3 billion people) from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), and that 4.1 billion people lacked access to an improved sanitation facility. Redefining sewerage-without-treatment as “unimproved sanitation” in MDG monitoring would raise the 1990 baseline population using unimproved sanitation from 53% to 64% and the corresponding 2015 target from 27% to 32%. At the current rate of progress, estimated is a shortfall of 28 percentage points (1.9 billion people) in 2010 and a projected 27 percentage point shortfall in 2015. [authors abstract]

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