Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of UK development assistance on the availability of clean water in the last 10 years in (a) sub-Saharan African countries and (b) other countries.

Mr Nick Hurd

Between 2011 and 2015, DFID reached 20.9 million people with access to clean drinking water. 60% of these results were delivered in sub-Saharan African countries. In addition we reached a further 42 million people with improved sanitation and hygiene. We met the Coalition target to reach 60 million people with water, sanitation and hygiene by December 2015 nine months early in April 2015.

DFID supports international monitoring of access to water. This showed that in 2015, 91% of the global population used an improved drinking water source and 2.6 billion people had gained access since 1990. Globally, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on access to water was met. However, the target was not met for sub-Saharan Africa where in 2015, 68% of people had access to improved drinking water.

We are currently formulating our new portfolio to deliver on the UK government’s commitment to help a further 60 million people get access to clean water and sanitation by 2020. We expect to maintain a significant proportion of this investment in sub-Saharan African countries, but will also support people in Asia to gain access to water and sanitation.