safely managed sanitation

Safely managed sanitation is the top rung of the sanitation ladder used by the WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, and it is the measure the UN uses to track its 2030 sanitation goal. Three conditions have to hold at once. The household must use an improved facility, meaning one built to keep human waste away from people: a flush or pour flush toilet connected to a sewer, a septic tank or a pit; a pit latrine with a slab, including a ventilated one; or a composting toilet. That facility must not be shared with other households. And the waste must either be disposed of safely where it falls or be removed and treated off site.

The distinction matters because the everyday word sanitation covers all three. A household with a private, well built latrine whose contents are emptied into a ditch has a basic service, not a safely managed one. A household sharing a good toilet with its neighbours has a limited service. Both are counted as having sanitation in ordinary speech, and neither counts towards the goal.

By this measure 58 percent of the world had safely managed sanitation in 2024, up from 48 percent in 2015, an increase of 1.2 billion people. The same figures mean 3.4 billion people did not, which is why coverage of safely managed services and the number of people with no toilet at all are two different stories about the same ladder.