Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water & Sanitation & Hygiene Nov-Dec 2017 | Page 28

2
Sanitation
nation from faeces. 3
• Globally, 80% of the wastewater generated by so-
ciety flows back into the ecosystem without being
treated or reused 4
• Only 39% of the global population (2.9 billion peo-
ple) use a safely-managed sanitation service, that is,
excreta safely disposed of in situ or treated off-site. 5
• Combined with safe water and good hygiene, im-
proved sanitation could prevent around 842,000
deaths each year. 6
WHAT ARE THE “SDGS”?
HEADLINE FACTS
• Around 60% of the global population – 4.5 billion
people – either have no toilet at home or one that
doesn’t safely manage excreta. 1
• 892 million people worldwide practise open defe-
cation and have no toilet facility at all. 2
• 1.8 billion people use an unimproved source of
drinking water with no protection against contami-
The Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) are a set of goals, targets and
indicators, signed up to by all UN Member
States, that aim to eradicate extreme
poverty by 2030. Collectively, these
goals provide a framework – the 2030
Agenda – within which all efforts towards
sustainable development should be
made. Launched in 2015 to replace the
Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs
are designed to be interconnected; for
example, improvements in gender equality
should lead to better reproductive health
outcomes.
1 WHO/UNICEF (2017) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG baselines
2 WHO/UNICEF (2017) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG baselines
3 WHO/UNICEF (2017) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG baselines
4 On average, high-income countries treat about 70% of the wastewater they generate, while that ratio drops to 38% in upper-middle-income coun-
tries and to 28% in lower-middle-income countries. In low-income countries, only 8% of industrial and municipal wastewater undergoes treatment of
any kind (Sato et. al, 2013).
5 WHO/UNICEF (2017) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG baselines
6 WHO (2014), Preventing diarrhoea through better water, sanitation and hygiene: exposures and impacts in low- and middle-income countries:
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/150112/1/9789241564823_eng.pdf
28
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2017