DEVELOPMENT: Progress on Water, Less on Sanitation
(My piece about the latest report released by WHO and UNICEF on ...)

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 17 (IPS) - The number of people globally who lack access to an improved drinking water source has fallen below one billion for the first time since data was compiled in 1990, according to a report released Thursday by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF.

The Joint Monitoring Programme for Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) report, titled "Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation - Special Focus on Sanitation," comes halfway through the International Year of Sanitation.

The report assesses -- for the first time ever -- global, regional and country progress using an innovative "ladder" concept. This shows sanitation practices in greater detail, enabling experts to highlight trends in using improved, shared and unimproved sanitation facilities, as well as trends in the problematic practice of open-air defecation....

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