Some 2.4 billion people, accounting for one-third of the world’s population, will remain without access to improved sanitation in 2015, a joint report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has claimed. The report titled Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water 2013 Update says at the current rate of progress, the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) target of halving the proportion of the 1990 population without sanitation, would be missed by 8%, or 500 million people. It said while UNICEF and WHO announced last year that the MDG drinking water target had been met and surpassed by 2010, the challenge to improve sanitation and reach those in need had led to a call for action to speed up progress. The report echoed the urgent call to action by United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, for the world community to combine efforts and end open defecation by 2025. It said approximately 2.5 billion people lacked access to an improved sanitation facility. Of this number, 761 million people use public or shared sanitation facilities and 693 million use facilities that do not meet minimum standards of hygiene. The report noted that almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of the world’s population had access to improved sanitation facilities, an increase of almost 1.9 billion people since 1990. It noted that in 2011, one billion people still defecated in the open, declaring that 90% of all open defecation takes place in rural areas. With less than three years to reach the MDG deadline, the WHO and UNICEF report calls for a final push to meet the sanitation target.