A report by the UNICEF on the progress in water sanitation targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has lauded Nepal’s achievement in this area.

“In South Asia, Nepal is one of four countries which has made substantial progress in increasing access to improved water supply coverage and is on track to meet the MDG sanitation target,” states the report.

According to the latest figures released by the World Health Organization, the percentage of rural Nepalese who have access to improved water supply has increased from about 65 percent in 1990 to about 85 percent in 2005. The urban populations’ access to improved water supply has remained stable at 95 per cent.

Nepal has also put much effort into expanding the sanitation needs and considerable progress has been made with toilet coverage in the country increasing from 12 per cent in 1990 to 39 per cent in 2005.

“Although this puts Nepal high up on the ranking of countries showing dramatic improvement, the baseline for the study was one of the lowest recorded, and the current level of coverage is still one of the lowest among South Asian countries,” the state further adds pointing out the huge task still ahead for Nepal.

In Nepal, lack of sanitation facilities and access to safe water is one of the major causes of diarrhea-related diseases in children. This leads to about 10 million episodes of diarrhea among children under five, and the death of approximately 15,000 children every year.

On the global scale, the UNICEF report says progresses have been made, but more are still needed to prevent the deaths of more than 1.5 million children under five each year.

More than 1.2 billion people have gained access to safe water since 1990, according to Progress for Children: A Report Card on Water and Sanitation, launched by the UNICEF.

The report charts progress towards Millennium Development Goal 7 which includes the target of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. Between 1990 and 2004, global coverage of safe drinking water rose from 78 per cent to 83 per cent.