Water Supply & Sanitation Coverage Figures
Limitations of Coverage Assessment
The Difficulties
Determining the coverage figures for water supply and sanitation in the developing world is a difficult if not impossible task. There are an number of reasons for this. These are primarily:
Political - governments do not wish to be identified as providing inadequate services so figures are often inflated.
Technical - to accurately establish service levels requires an ongoing process of information gathering and analysis which requires resources and capacity which are generally not available.
Standards - everybody is drinking water of some form (death from thirst is rare) and using some form of sanitation practice. Coverage figures are only relevant if the same standard of service is counted in all cases - this is unlikely to be the case.
Dereliction - most coverage figures are based of construction projects and institutional/agency figures which generally will not account for high dereliction rates as the sustainability of services is generally a major problem.
Generally coverage figures are over estimated.
These difficulties are referred to in the World Health Organization Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 noted below.
The Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000
The WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) provides a snapshot of water supply and sanitation worldwide at the turn of the millennium using information available from different sources. From 2001 the JMP database – for both historic data and future projections – will be periodically updated. All assistance in identifying unused and new data to improve the estimates presented here is welcome.
WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Water supply - statistics
Water resources development
Sanitation - statistics
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (ISBN 92 4 156202 1) (NLM classificatrion: WA 675)
Global Coverage Figures
Water Supply & Sanitation Assessment
REGION |
1990 Population (millions) |
2000 Population (millions) |
||||||
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served2 |
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served |
|
GLOBAL |
(76% of global population represented) |
(89% of global population represented) |
||||||
Urban water supply |
2 292 |
2 179 |
113 |
95 |
2 845 |
2 672 |
173 |
94 |
Rural water supply |
2 974 |
1 961 |
1 013 |
66 |
3 210 |
2 284 |
926 |
71 |
Total water supply |
5 266 |
4 140 |
1 126 |
79 |
6 055 |
4 956 |
1 099 |
82 |
Urban sanitation |
2 292 |
1 877 |
415 |
82 |
2 845 |
2 442 |
403 |
86 |
Rural sanitation |
2 974 |
1 028 |
1 946 |
35 |
3 210 |
1 210 |
2 000 |
38 |
Total sanitation |
5 266 |
2 905 |
2 361 |
55 |
6 055 |
3 652 |
2 403 |
60 |
REGION |
1990 Population (millions) |
2000 Population (millions) |
||||||
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served2 |
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served |
|
AFRICA |
(72% of regional population represented) |
(96% of regional population represented) |
||||||
Urban water supply |
197 |
166 |
31 |
84 |
297 |
253 |
44 |
85 |
Rural water supply |
418 |
183 |
235 |
44 |
487 |
231 |
256 |
47 |
Total water supply |
615 |
349 |
266 |
57 |
784 |
484 |
300 |
62 |
Urban sanitation |
197 |
167 |
30 |
85 |
297 |
251 |
46 |
84 |
Rural sanitation |
418 |
206 |
212 |
49 |
487 |
220 |
267 |
45 |
Total sanitation |
615 |
373 |
242 |
61 |
784 |
471 |
313 |
60 |
REGION |
1990 Population (millions) |
2000 Population (millions) |
||||||
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served2 |
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served |
|
ASIA |
(88% of regional population represented) |
(94% of regional population represented) |
||||||
Urban water supply |
1 029 |
972 |
57 |
94 |
1 352 |
1 254 |
98 |
93 |
Rural water supply |
2 151 |
1 433 |
718 |
67 |
2 331 |
1 736 |
595 |
75 |
Total water supply |
3 180 |
2 405 |
775 |
76 |
3 683 |
2 990 |
693 |
81 |
Urban sanitation |
1 029 |
690 |
339 |
67 |
1 352 |
1 055 |
297 |
78 |
Rural sanitation |
2 151 |
496 |
1 655 |
23 |
2 331 |
712 |
1 619 |
31 |
Total sanitation |
3 180 |
1 186 |
1 994 |
37 |
3 683 |
1 767 |
1 916 |
48 |
REGION |
1990 Population (millions) |
2000 Population (millions) |
||||||
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served2 |
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served |
|
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN(77% of regional population represented) |
(99% of regional population represented) |
|||||||
Urban water supply |
313 |
287 |
26 |
92 |
391 |
362 |
29 |
93 |
Rural water supply |
128 |
72 |
56 |
56 |
128 |
79 |
49 |
62 |
Total water supply |
441 |
359 |
82 |
82 |
519 |
441 |
78 |
85 |
Urban sanitation |
313 |
267 |
46 |
85 |
391 |
340 |
51 |
87 |
Rural sanitation |
128 |
50 |
78 |
39 |
128 |
62 |
66 |
49 |
Total sanitation |
441 |
317 |
124 |
72 |
519 |
402 |
117 |
78 |
REGION |
1990 Population (millions) |
2000 Population (millions) |
||||||
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served2 |
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served |
|
OCEANIA |
(64% of regional population represented) |
(85% of regional population represented) |
||||||
Urban water supply |
18 |
18 |
0 |
100 |
21 |
21 |
0 |
98 |
Rural water supply |
8 |
5 |
3 |
62 |
9 |
6 |
3 |
63 |
Total water supply |
26 |
23 |
3 |
88 |
30 |
27 |
3 |
88 |
Urban sanitation |
18 |
18 |
0 |
99 |
21 |
21 |
0 |
99 |
Rural sanitation |
8 |
7 |
1 |
89 |
9 |
7 |
2 |
81 |
Total sanitation |
26 |
25 |
1 |
96 |
30 |
28 |
2 |
93 |
REGION |
1990 Population (millions) |
2000 Population (millions) |
||||||
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served2 |
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served |
|
EUROPE |
(15% of regional population represented) |
(44% of regional population represented) |
||||||
Urban water supply |
522 |
522 |
0 |
100 |
545 |
542 |
3 |
100 |
Rural water supply |
200 |
199 |
1 |
100 |
184 |
161 |
23 |
87 |
Total water supply |
722 |
721 |
1 |
100 |
729 |
703 |
26 |
96 |
Urban sanitation |
522 |
522 |
0 |
100 |
545 |
537 |
8 |
99 |
Rural sanitation |
200 |
199 |
1 |
100 |
184 |
137 |
47 |
74 |
Total sanitation |
722 |
721 |
1 |
100 |
729 |
674 |
55 |
92 |
REGION |
1990 Population (millions) |
2000 Population (millions) |
||||||
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served2 |
Total population |
Population |
Population unserved |
% served |
|
NORTHERN AMERICA |
(99.9% of regional population represented) |
(99.9% of regional population represented) |
||||||
Urban water supply |
213 |
213 |
0 |
100 |
239 |
239 |
0 |
100 |
Rural water supply |
69 |
69 |
0 |
100 |
71 |
71 |
0 |
100 |
Total water supply |
282 |
282 |
0 |
100 |
310 |
310 |
0 |
100 |
Urban sanitation |
213 |
213 |
0 |
100 |
239 |
239 |
0 |
100 |
Rural sanitation |
69 |
69 |
0 |
100 |
71 |
71 |
0 |
100 |
Total sanitation |
282 |
282 |
0 |
100 |
310 |
310 |
0 |
100 |