With improved latrine, hand washing facilities and access to drinking water, the new findings indicate progress towards SDG 6
Clean water and sanitation for all is Goal 6 among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) enlisted by the United Nations. According to this key goal, we must strive to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.
A new report shows improvement in this direction.
According to a government survey, throughout 2020–2021, 95% of people in rural areas and 97.2% of people in cities had access to better sources of drinking (potable) water. According to the report based on the Multiple Indicator Survey (MIS) of the 78th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS), approximately 56.3% of people in rural regions and approximately 76.3% of people in urban areas used improved sources of drinking water that were sufficiently available all year.
The primary objective of the MIS was to collect data for generation of some important national indicators of SDG.
The survey was originally scheduled to take place between January and December 2020, however, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, data collection was extended until August 15, 2021 to ensure that the operation was complete in terms of coverage.
For the central sample, the survey covered 2,76,409 sample homes, including 1,64,529 in rural regions and 1,11,880 in urban areas, across 14,266 first stage units (8,469 in rural and 5,797 in urban areas).
The report that was published in March revealed that around 78.7% of rural households and approximately 97.1 % of urban households claimed that the majority of household members had access to latrines.
According to the study, 97.5 per cent of respondents said they had access to improved latrines in rural regions and 99 per cent of those in urban areas had access to renovated latrines.
According to the report, roughly 77.4 per cent of people in rural regions and about 92.7 per cent of people in urban areas had access to on-site hand washing facilities with water and soap or detergent.
Approximately 73.3% of people in rural areas and approximately 81.4% of people in urban areas had exclusive access to better hand washing facilities with water, soap, and detergent.