Proportion of the population that had achieved at least a basic level of sanitation service by 2015

Description

In the post-2015 agenda, the targets focus not only on access to facilities but also to services. When the baselines for the SDG 6 targets were established, improved facilities that did not meet the requirements for the safe disposal and treatment of excreta were considered ‘basic’, as opposed to ‘safely managed’. Using this definition, 5 billion people in the world had access to at least a ‘basic’ level service, that is, an improved facility not shared with other households, in 2015. However, most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa had not ensured 50 per cent of their population had access to basic services.