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Facts. You decide. |
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| 39% Rural sanitation coverage compared to 80% in urban areas |
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| Ensure environmental sustainability |
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| Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation |
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Globally, urban coverage with improved sanitation crept up from 79% to 80% over 1990–2004. In contrast, rural sanitation coverage – despite increasing 13 percentage points over the same period – remains incredibly low at 39%.
On one hand, rural coverage consistently lags behind urban coverage. On average, there are over three rural dwellers unserved for every urban dweller unserved. On the other hand, in most developing countries, rural populations are migrating to urban areas, which together with natural urban growth will add to the number of urban unserved |
| Source: UNICEF & WHO, Meeting the MDG Drinking Water and Sanitation Target: The Urban and Rural Challenge of the Decade, Switzerland, 2006. |
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