Water - Basic Sanitation

Basic Sanitation

Throughout the developing world, access to sanitation lags far behind access to safe water. Three out of five people in low-income countries, one in three in middle-income countries, and one in six people in upper-middle-income countries have no access to basic sanitation. The greatest challenges are in Africa and Asia, where 0.5 billion and 1.8 billion respectively live without improved sanitation.

To make progress in sanitation, policy and know-how count as much as finance. Lessons of experience are to:

	Base the design of services on what people want and can afford; offering them a menu of technical options helps
	Promote behavioral changes that will improve hygiene
	Develop institutions that own the problem over the long haul; these may or may not be water utilities
	In urban sanitation, look beyond the network; address the full range of sanitation needs and build on existing systems
	Develop a clear and costed strategy
	Foster appropriate partnerships, including with small scale institutions
	Be mindful of the financial incentives facing both governments and households.

Key Challenges
Meeting the sanitation MDG goal to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to basic sanitation calls for a massive scaling up of investments and sustainable service delivery. Success in sanitation requires demand at all levels: household, community, local, and national government.

The measures needed include policy reforms, hygiene promotion, capacity building, use of participatory processes, and adherence to demand-responsive and community-driven approaches.

World Bank Response
World Bank operations support policies that encourage and promote sanitation and hygiene, capable institutions with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, clear and effective financing mechanisms and subsidy policies, and local community structures that take responsibility for operating and maintaining local systems. The World Bank also pays attention to providing sanitation facilities at schools and other public buildings and has a technical assistance program to help clients with the preparation of sanitation projects and components worldwide .