Access
There are conflicting figures about the number of people with access to safe water, and especially the number of people with access to sanitation. According to the official UN figures used to monitor the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, 99% of Egyptians had access to an improved water source and 94% had access to improved sanitation in 2008.
| Access to Water and Sanitation in Egypt (2010) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urban (43% of the population) |
Rural (57% of the population) |
Total | ||
| Water | Broad definition | 100% | 99% | 99% |
| House connections | 100% | 93% | 96% | |
| Sanitation | Broad definition | 97% | 93% | 95% |
| Sewage | n/a | n/a | 50% (2006 census) | |
According to one source, Egypt has reached the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without proper access to safe water and sanitation by 2015 ahead of time in 2008. However, according to the government report of the same year, Egypt was still off track to achieve the sanitation target in rural areas, especially in Upper Egypt and in frontier governorates. Soakaway latrines, which are common in rural areas, often do not work properly due to the high groundwater table, infrequent emptying and cracks in the walls. Thus sewage leaks out and contaminates the surrounding streets, canals, and groundwater. Trucks that empty latrines and septic tanks do not necessarily discharge septage into wastewater treatment plants, but rather dump the content in the environment.
Read more about this topic: Water Supply And Sanitation In Egypt
Famous quotes containing the word access:
“The nature of women’s oppression is unique: women are oppressed as women, regardless of class or race; some women have access to significant wealth, but that wealth does not signify power; women are to be found everywhere, but own or control no appreciable territory; women live with those who oppress them, sleep with them, have their children—we are tangled, hopelessly it seems, in the gut of the machinery and way of life which is ruinous to us.”
—Andrea Dworkin (b. 1946)
“In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)
“The last publicized center of American writing was Manhattan. Its writers became known as the New York Intellectuals. With important connections to publishing, and universities, with access to the major book reviews, they were able to pose as the vanguard of American culture when they were so obsessed with the two Joes—McCarthy and Stalin—that they were to produce only two artists, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, who left town.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)