Rural and urban household drinking water services in Sustainable Development Goal regions, 2015-2020

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.1 implies that both rural and urban (RU) households have access to “safely managed drinking water services” by 2030. Hence, this study assessed households' access to drinking water services in RU areas of SDG regions, 2015-2020.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study adopted the descriptive cross-sectional design, using secondary data harvested from the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), 2021 report, which contained data on water services for RU areas in SDG regions for 2015 and 2020, which is available at “https://data.unicef.org/resources/progress-on-household-drinking-water-sanitation-and-hygiene-2000-2020.” The study population consisted of 234 countries, areas or territories, recognized by the United Nations and classified into eight SDG regions. The analyses of the data were undertaken using percentages and t-test statistics.

RESULTS

The results showed that four of the eight SDG regions were projected to miss target 6.1 by 2030. The study established inequality in basic water services between RU areas. Generally, better services were reported in the urban area in almost all the SDG regions. The t-test results (t7 = 2.774, p = 0.028, α = 0.05) and (t7 = 2.461, p = 0.043, α = 0.05) showed significant disparity in RU household water services in SDG regions in 2015 and 2020, respectively. Similarly, the t-test analysis (t7 = -3.130, p = 0.017, α = 0.05) showed significant inequality in the national household water services in SDG regions between 2015 and 2020.

CONCLUSION

The researchers recommend that SDG regions that were identified to miss target 6.1 should scale up their activities so that every SDG region would be carried along.