11 April 2014: The World Health Organization (WHO) / UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation recently launched a redesigned website, which contains newly released documents including the ‘2014 Update – Progress on Drinking-Water and Sanitation,’ ‘A Snapshot on Progress – 2014 Update,’ and ‘Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Post 2015.’ The 2014 Update contains tables with country, area or territory estimates on sanitation and drinking water, including on use of sanitation facilities and use of drinking-water sources.

The snapshot highlights that the global Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on sanitation is not on track to be met by 2015, while noting that sanitation coverage in developing countries has increased 21% since 1990. The snapshot emphasizes that the MDG on drinking water was already met in 2010, with drinking water coverage expanding by 17% in developing countries since 1990. The Snapshot then examines which countries are on track to meet the MDG targets and breaks-out statistics related to Mozambique and Ethiopia to examine disparities in access to sanitation.

WASH Post 2015 outlines a vision for a goal of “universal access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene,” identifying specific targets to, by 2030: eliminate open defecation; achieve universal access to basic WASH for households, schools and health facilities; halve the proportion of the population without access at home to safely managed drinking water and sanitation services; and to progressively eliminate inequalities in access. [UN-Water Press Release] [WHO/UNICEF JMP Website] [Publication: 2014 Update Progress on Drinking-Water and Sanitation] [Publication: A Snapshot on Progress – 2014 Update] [Publication: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Post 2015]