Every year, millions of children miss out on school because they have to fetch water over long distances. Moreover, nearly a fifth of the world's child deaths are related to a lack of access to proper water and sanitation facilities (UNDP, 2006).

Access to improved drinking water sources has increased in Asia and the Pacific, from 75 per cent in 1990 to 83 per cent in 2004. Latin America and the Caribbean has the highest access rate among the developing regions of the world, 91 per cent, and Africa has the lowest, 61 per cent. All of the North American population has access to improved water sources, but in Europe this is only so for 80 per cent of the population.

Among Asian and Pacific country groupings, over 80 per cent of the populations of SAARC, ASEAN and Central Asian countries have access to improved water sources. The least developed countries and landlocked developing countries have access rates of just above 70 per cent, while the small island developing States lag behind, with only 66 per cent of the population with access to improved water sources.

Figure 10.1 Proportion of total population with access to improved water sources for selected Asian and Pacific country/area groupings, 1990 and 2004

In North America and Europe, the urban populations have complete access to improved water sources; in Latin America and the Caribbean, access is close to complete. Asia and the Pacific, with a rate of 94 per cent, falls short of full access and has, in fact, regressed slightly since 1990, when 95 per cent of its population had access to improved sources of water.

Access to safe water in urban Asia and the Pacific is not uniform. The proportion of the urban population with access in the Central Asian countries and SAARC countries increased from 89 per cent in 1990 to 94 per cent in 2004, while in ASEAN countries and small island developing States, it decreased by 4 percentage points over the same period.

Figure 10.2 Proportion of urban population with access to improved water sources for selected Asian and Pacific country/area groupings, 1990 and 2004

Urbanization and the increase in the number of people living in slums are largely responsible for this phenomenon. Countries with high access rates in the 1990s, such as China, Indonesia and the Philippines, have all recorded a fall in the proportion of the urban population with access to improved sources of water.

Increased urbanization has pushed access rates down in increasingly industrialized middle-income countries, while low-income countries have made significant progress in absolute but not relative terms. Afghanistan has increased the proportion of the population living in cities with access to water six-fold since 1990, to 63 per cent.

Access to improved sources of water in rural areas, on the other hand, has steadily improved in the Asian and Pacific region. Between 1990 and 2004, access in the region increased by 11 percentage points, to 76 per cent. Latin America and the Caribbean experienced the highest percentage point increase among world regions, by 13 percentage points. Despite this increase, it still has a lower rural access rate than Asia and the Pacific, at 73 per cent.

Within Asia and the Pacific, not only do SAARC countries have the highest level of access to water in rural areas, but they have also recorded the largest increase in coverage, by 16 percentage points. Currently, access in rural areas of SAARC countries is 81 per cent, compared with 77 per cent in ASEAN countries.

Figure 10.3 The 20 Asian and Pacific countries/areas with the lowest access to improved water sources in urban areas, 1990 and 2004

Figure 10.4 The 20 Asian and Pacific countries/areas with the lowest access to improved water sources in rural areas, 1990 and 2004

Central Asia is the only subregion in Asia and the Pacific with a declining trend in rural access to improved water sources, its rate having fallen from 77 to 68 per cent between 1990 and 2004. Access in small island developing States in the latter year, however, was at 42 per cent, lower than that of Africa, at 48 per cent. Five of the 20 countries with the lowest rural water access rates in Asia and the Pacific are small island developing States.

Even though ASEAN countries have the second highest access in rural areas, Cambodia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic still rank among the bottom five countries in the Asian and Pacific region, with access of about 40 per cent.

The rapid progress in the region with regard to increasing access to water in rural areas has come hand in hand with an impressive increase in access to sanitation facilities. The importance of improved sanitation facilities is vital for a healthy life. According to some estimates, improving sanitation can lead to a 30 per cent reduction in child mortality (UNDP, 2006).

Improved sanitation facilities include household toilets or latrines connected to piped sewerage systems and also septic tanks and ventilated improved pit latrines. People without these facilities usually defecate in fields or dispose of faeces in plastic bags, bucket latrines or rivers. The access rate discrepancy between rural and urban areas is thus higher in comparison with access to improved water sources.

The proportion of the total population with access to improved sanitation has increased in all regions between 1990 and 2004, except for North America, which has had universal access throughout this period. Between 1990 and 2004, the Asian and Pacific region augmented total access by 15 percentage points, which is the highest increase among all developing regions. Half the population of Asia and the Pacific has access to improved sanitation, which is higher than the 44 per cent of Africa, but lower than the 77 per cent of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Figure 10.5 Acess to improved sanitation facilities in regions of the world, 1990 and 2004

The Asian and Pacific region has more than doubled the proportion of the rural population with access to improved sanitation facilities, from 16 to 34 per cent, between 1990 and 2004. It nevertheless remains close to that of Africa, at 32 per cent, the lowest coverage in the world. Latin America and the Caribbean records higher access, at 49 per cent. The proportions of the urban population with access to improved sanitation in these three regions are 62 per cent in Africa, 74 per cent in Asia and the Pacific and 86 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

SAARC countries, at 27 per cent, lag behind Africa despite a significant increase in rural coverage. Central Asian and ASEAN countries are the most advanced country groupings in this regard, with 55 per cent of the rural populations having access to improved sanitation.

Figure 10.6 Access to improved sanitation in rural areas of selected Asian and Pacific country/area groupings, Latin America and Africa, 1990 and 2004

For countries with trend data available that are situated at the bottom of the access rankings, the increase in access to improved facilities has been quite significant. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal have more than doubled the proportion of the rural population’s access to improved sanitation facilities, considerably moving the SAARC average up. China has steadily increased access to improved sanitation facilities in rural areas, although it is still only 28 per cent. Access in rural Cambodia remain very low, only 8 per cent, and there is no trend data.

In terms of access to improved sanitation facilities in urban areas, the Asian and Pacific region has also made slow progress except for SAARC countries, which increased coverage from 50 per cent in 1990 to 63 in 2004. The small island developing States, despite a declining trend, have the highest proportion of the urban population with access to improved sanitation, at 93 per cent. ASEAN and Central Asian countries follow the small island developing States with 81 per cent coverage in urban areas.

Figure 10.7 The 10 Asian and Pacific countries with the lowest access to improved sanitation facilities in rural areas, 1990 and 2004

As in the case of rural coverage, improved access to sanitation in the urban areas of Afghanistan, India and Nepal have moved the SAARC average upwards. Bangladesh, on the other hand, has experienced a setback, with a fall from 55 per cent in 1990 to 51 per cent in 2004. With this figure, Bangladesh has the lowest proportion of urban population with access to improved sanitation in Asia and the Pacific. Cambodia, with 53 per cent, has slightly better urban access than Bangladesh. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea provides 58 per cent of its urban population with access to improved sanitation, while India and Kiribati have a comparable level of urban coverage, at 59 per cent.

Figure 10.8 The 10 Asian and Pacific countries/areas with the lowest access to improved sanitation facilities in urban areas, 1990 and 2004