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| Edited By: |Source: |Updated: Nov 13, 2011, 01:53 PM IST
The poorest lot in the world will remain aloof from proper sanitation facilities for another 200 years on grounds of a failed global plan which aimed at reducing the worldwide sanitation crisis to half by 2015, a new study has revealed.
According to the charity WaterAid, the top 10 recipients of water, sanitation and hygiene aid (‘Wash’) over the past decade have not been those in greatest need, but largely middle- or upper-middle-income countries.
Almost 900 million people worldwide live without access to clean water and more than two and a half billion people live without adequate sanitation, which is more than a third of the world’s population.
Ninety per cent of people without access to sanitation facilities live in just 29 countries, with the highest absolute numbers in India and China.
“Historical and strategic interests still influence where aid is going, rather than the countries and communities where poverty and need is highest,” The Indepented quoted Barbara Frost, chief executive of WaterAid as saying.
“Over the past decade, least developed countries have received only 30 per cent of aid for water, sanitation and hygiene.”
“With an increase of aid focused on the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved every year, and a major step will have been taken towards ending the global water and sanitation crisis.”
WaterAid, after evaluating the figures provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, divulged that, between 2000 to 2009, India and China, which have more than 800 million and 600 million people respectively without access to sanitation facilities, were top 10 recipients for Wash aid in nine and eight years respectively.
Still, the poorest sub-Saharan African countries, where the proportion of those living in water and sanitation poverty is greatest, featured only two or three times in the top 10 of aid recipients, in each of the past five years.
