The Millenium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, has been met well ahead of the 2015 deadline. Over 2 billion people gained access to improved water sources between 1990 and 2010. “It’s definitely encouraging to see that, globally, we’re making so much progress. But, of course, it will take a lot of effort by all the stakeholders involved to really make an impact at a grassroots level and to demonstrate that those people most in need are also benefiting from this global progress,” was the statement from an Executive Director of an NGO.

During emergencies, schools become the shelters for internally displaced people. For this reason, it is essential that ‘the water and sanitation facilities have the capacity to absorb high demand and that children are trained in sanitary practices, particularly in natural disaster-prone countries.’ The biggest challenge however to meeting the sanitation targets is that discussing sanitation is viewed as taboo in many communities.

UNICEF advisor said that “it’s really important to continue to celebrate the success that we have achieved - the goal on water - so that sanitation is more recognised, but also build on our advocacy efforts so that the ministries of education, so that the ministries of health and water, work hand-in-hand to achieve universal access to WASH facilities and good hygiene promotion in schools, so that all children can grow with privacy dignity to their full potential”.