RT null T1 Clean Water and Sanitation: Ensure Availability and Sustainable Management of Water and Sanitation for All A1 World Bank, K1 drinking water K1 sanitation K1 water resource YR 2017 FD 2017 LK https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/21428 UL https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/21428 NO This document analyzes global progress toward equitable water, sanitation, and hygiene, showing gains in “improved” services yet large shortfalls under stricter “safely managed” standards that require on-premises, available, and uncontaminated supplies plus complete sanitation chains and handwashing facilities. In 2015, 663 million people still used unimproved water sources, 2.4 billion lacked improved sanitation, and an estimated 946 million practiced open defecation, with rural poor in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia most affected.It explains how refined monitoring can sharply reduce reported coverage, details wide hygiene gaps, and links access to broader water-cycle challenges: quality and wastewater, scarcity and withdrawals, integrated resource management, and ecosystem protection. The report calls for better data, including satellite observations, and stronger stakeholder participation to translate global targets into national action. DS UN Environment Document Repository RD Sep 23, 2026