Kathmandu, July 13

Achieving universal access to water and sanitation in Nepal by 2030 is fraught with challenges, shows a report released by WaterAid.

Currently, 12 per cent of population in Nepal do not have clean water and 54 per cent do not have decent toilets. Furthermore, earlier definitions of access to clean water required that a person have access to a water source built to protect the water from contamination, such as a pump or a covered well.

With this new set of definitions, the United Nations has set the vision higher for every household to have its own water points, available when needed, and regularly tested to make sure it is safe. By this definition, at present only 27 per cent of people in Nepal have a safely managed water supply, while there is insufficient data available on how many people in Nepal have access to safely managed sanitation.

“The fact that so many in the world still have to exist without access to the essentials of life, clean water and a decent toilet, is shameful. There is clear consensus on the transformative power of those services,” said Tripti Rai, country director of WaterAid Nepal.

“The United Nations vision of working taps, toilets and hand-basins for every household by 2030 is absolutely the right goal because it will truly transform lives. But we have only another 13 years to get there which means that all of us, across government, civil society, water and sanitation companies and every community are working with passion, grit, generosity and vision to bring this historic moment to pass in the country,” Rai added.