Revisiting MDGs in view of accessibility with particular attention to distance: examples in Eastern Africa

Data from WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation show that 91% of the worldwide population have access to an improved source of water in 2015. However, this indicator does not reflect the definition of water access considering distance to the source. This is an important factor to take into account considering that 42.5% of the world population don’t have access to water on their premises in 2015. This study examined accessibility data from the JMP by taking distance into account for 5 Eastern African countries. As reported by JMP, 72,6% of these countries population have access to an improved water source while our analysis revealed that this figure falls to 58,5 % when considering distance in the access criterion. To achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all, as desired in the new Sustainable Development Goals, this impact must be considered to ensure reasonable access to water.