Access
Only about 47% of the Mozambican population has access to an improved water source, and only 17% has access to adequate sanitation. Consequences on living conditions are multiple, ranging from poor health to lower productivity due to the time needed to fetch water.
Figures on access are controversial. For example, the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation estimates access to an improved source of water supply at 77% in urban areas and 29% in rural areas as of 2010. These figures are based primarily on data from the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey. However, the Ministry of Public Works uses the water access figures of 38% in urban areas and 40% in rural areas. The numbers for rural access are derived from the number of boreholes and an estimated average number of households using a borehole.
| Urban (38% of the population) |
Rural (62% of the population) |
Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | Broad definition | 77% | 29% | 47% |
| House connections | not available | not available | not available | |
| Sanitation | Broad definition | 38% | 5% | 18% |
| Sewerage | not available | not available | not available |
Source: Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation of WHO and UNICEF
There are also conflicting figures about what are the target figures to meet the MDGs for water and sanitation by 2015. According to a World Bank document it means urban access to water increasing to 78% and rural access increasing to 56%. However, according to a MDG status report it means increasing access to 70% in both urban and rural areas.
Read more about this topic: Water Supply And Sanitation In Mozambique
Famous quotes containing the word access:
“Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of their access to reason, their rights in property are very unequal. One man owns his clothes, and another owns a country.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“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)
“Oh, the holiness of always being the injured party. The historically oppressed can find not only sanctity but safety in the state of victimization. When access to a better life has been denied often enough, and successfully enough, one can use the rejection as an excuse to cease all efforts. After all, one reckons, “they” don’t want me, “they” accept their own mediocrity and refuse my best, “they” don’t deserve me.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)