Sanitation Status of Income Groupings of the Sustainable Development Goals: Implications for the Attainment of Target 6.2

Abstract

The use of safely managed sanitation services (SMSS) has been recognized as fundamental to maintaining good health and prevention of diseases, especially diarrhea. This study assessed the sanitation status of income groupings of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and its implication for the attainment of target 6.2. The descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted, which involved harvesting of retrospective data from the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report for 2021 on household SMSS and open defecation (OD) of the SDG income groupings “(low-income, lower-middle income, upper-middle income & high-income)” that were disaggregated for rural and urban (RU) areas. The findings revealed that the chances of the global population attaining the sanitation targets by 2030 was very slim, as none of the income groupings was projected to reach 100% coverage of SMSS by 2030. The provision of SMSS increases progressively from the low-income to the high-income groupings and from the RU areas. OD was more prevalent in the rural area of the low-income and lower-middle income countries. Therefore, achieving the sanitation component of target 6.2 will require an annual growth rate of SMSS of about six folds of current rates, especially in the low and lower-middle income classes.