The Hindu : National : India has to move ahead in sanitation, says UNICEF

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Friday, Sep 29, 2006
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India has to move ahead in sanitation, says UNICEF

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: India is on the track to meet its 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target on water, but sanitation remains a cause for concern, according to the "Progress for Children: A Report Card on Water and Sanitation" launched by the UNICEF on Thursday.

The report card is the fifth in a UNICEF series that monitors progress for children towards the MDG and measures the world's performance in drinking water and sanitation.

Clean water and sanitation were the vital prerequisites for improved nutrition, reduction in child and maternal mortality and the fight against disease, the report said.

Between 1990 and 2004, approximately 445 million people in South Asia gained access to improved drinking water. Of this 88 per cent were from India and Pakistan. Yet, in many areas in South Asia, including India, naturally occurring arsenic and fluoride contamination were threatening to reverse the gains made in providing improved drinking water.

In 1990, only 3 per cent of India's rural population had access to improved sanitation. Considerable progress had been made in the last few years and evidence showed that approximately a third of the population now had access to sanitation facilities, the report said.

In spite of increased impetus to the sanitation programmes, the pace of progress would have to be considerably accelerated if the country had to meet its MDG target of 57 per cent coverage, the report said.

This low level of basic sanitation was the cause of diarrhoea and other diseases and also one of India's biggest public health threats.

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