2.5 billion live with poor sanitation facilities More people
using drinking water from safe sources, says a new report 17
July 2008 | New York/Geneva - Every day, over 2.5 billion people
suffer from a lack of access to improved sanitation and nearly
1.2 billion practise open defecation, the riskiest sanitary
practice of all, according to a report issued today by the
WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and
Sanitation. The programme is the official UN mechanism tasked
with monitoring progress towards the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG) Target 7c on drinking water supply and sanitation.
The report titled "Progress on drinking water and sanitation -
special focus on sanitation," comes halfway through the
International Year of Sanitation. The report assesses -- for the
first time -- global, regional and country progress using an
innovative "ladder" concept. This shows sanitation practices in
greater detail, enabling experts to highlight trends in using
improved, shared and unimproved sanitati