Here is my sanitation-focused summary:
(originally shared here www.linkedin.com/posts/andr%C3%A9shueso_...645082742263811-pbif):


🚽 These are the overall numbers (all for 2024):
- 4.8 billion people have access to safely managed sanitation services
- 3.4 billion people lack safely managed sanitation services, including
* 1.9 billion with basic services (aka decent toilet, but waste untreated)
*560 million with limited services (aka shared toilets)
* 555 million with unimproved services (aka unhygienic toilet)
* 354 million practising open defecation.

🚽 There has been continued progress, but it is far too slow.
- Since 2015, 1.2 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation services, with coverage increasing from 48% to 58%.
- At this pace of progress, we’ll have to wait until 2063 to reach the SDG 6.2 ambition of universal access. A sixfold acceleration is needed (global average, but coincidentally also the acceleration needed in high-income countries).

🚽 Progress has been unequal between countries, regions, income groups, etc. For instance:
- Coverage in rural areas increased from 36% to 49% and in urban areas from 59% to 66%.
- The total population lacking safely managed sanitation has actually increased in low- income countries
- Open defecation in urban areas has been technically eliminated (<1%). [in my opinion this indicates how national statistics fail to fully capture the situation in informal settlements]

🚽 The report has new/more details on types and status of containment and emptying:
- More people use on-site sanitation (47%) than sewer connections (42%)
- Fewer than half of on-site sanitation users reported that waste had been emptied and removed off-site.
- Release of faecal waste from the containment into the environment is quite frequent; it affected between a quarter and a half of the containments in three of six countries with data. These are due to adverse events like collapse, flooding or overflowing, and highlights the importance of improving the quality and climate resilience of containments and pit emptying services.

Dear All,
Dave brought to my notice that a new progress report on household WASH, titled "Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2024: special focus on inequalities", has been published. It can be accessed here .


Report highlights 
Between 2000 and 2024, the global population rose from 6.2 to 8.2 billion. Over this period, about a quarter of the population (2.2 billion) gained access to safely managed drinking water and a third (2.8 billion) to safely managed sanitation. Yet progress has been uneven and the number of people left behind has fallen more slowly. Since 2015, the distribution of the unserved has shifted: the proportion of the population with sanitation services has risen quickly in rural areas while staying relatively flat in urban areas. However, in terms of raw numbers most of the gains have been realized in urban areas. Basic hygiene access has improved, especially in rural areas; and the share of people unserved has increasingly concentrated in low-income countries.

• Achieving the 2030 targets for safely managed services is increasingly out of reach
• The population without WASH services is declining except in urban areas and low-income countries
• Despite gains since 2015, 1 in 4 – or 2.1 billion people globally – still lack access to safely managed drinking water, including 106 million who drink directly from untreated surface sources

The data on which the report is based is also available on the  WASHdata  website (related discussion  thread ). Further, updated country factsheets can also be downloaded from  Downloads | JMP .  

I encourage members to explore the data and share their findings. I am sure they will interest many.