1.1.2 “By 20xx, ensure that the global rural population without access to safe water decreases by x%, with special attention to the poor.”

Rationale and Description

The number of rural dwellers with access to a safe water supply grew from 1.9 to 2.6 billion between 1990 and 2008. Coverage trends vary considerably, as do levels of service. Whereas 73% of rural dwellers in Eastern Asia access piped water supply within the home, in contrast only 16% and 5% in South-Eastern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa respectively enjoy this level of service (WHO/UNICEF 2010).

An estimated 22% of the world’s rural population (740 million people) does not access a safe drinking water supply. In fact, five out of six people without access to a safe drinking water supply reside in rural areas (UNICEF/WHO 2010). Although the world is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Target to “halve, by 2015 the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water”, this is very unlikely to be met in many rural areas.

Urbanisation is taking place, with 79% of the world’s population expected to live in urban areas by 2050 compared to 50% today. However, the number of rural dwellers will still be about 2.8 billion by 2050 (UNPD, 2009), with many female-headed households. The terms rural and urban suggest a simple divide, but there is actually a range of settlement patterns (Figure 2). This target and solutions group is concerned with access to drinking water for scattered homesteads, hamlets, more nuclear villages up to small towns.

The vision of this Target and Solutions group is of a world in which all rural people have access to a sustainable and reliable water supply which can be effectively managed to provide sufficient, affordable and safe water within a reasonable distance of the home. To achieve this, more investment is needed. All stakeholders must work through evolution and not revolution, by building on positive progress and taking the successful lessons from what has worked, whilst heeding our collective failures. This can define a new way forward for government, consumers, operators and development partners.

The 6th World Water Forum has set the target: By 20XX, ensure that the global rural population without access to safe water decreases by X%, with a special emphasis on the poor. This target can be measured, provides a mechanism for comparison and is a powerful political tool. We argue that sustainability needs to feature much more prominently, and that the year and percentage needs to be articulated for each country, and even within a country, ultimately resulting in targets for progressive realisation of access to water for all.

References

UNICEF/WHO 2010. Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water, Joint Monitoring Programme 2010 Report, UNICEF, New York
and World Health Organisation, Geneva, http://www.wssinfo.org/

UN-DESA 2010. World Urbanization Prospects 2009 Revision, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/index.htm

World Bank. 2009. Reshaping economic geography, World Development Report 2009, World Bank, Washington DC, USA.
http://econ.worldbank.org


Key organisations :

Solutions