Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures the Department for International Development is taking to reach rural communities with water, sanitation and hygiene programmes, as well as urban ones.

DFID reached over 62 million people with water, sanitation and/or hygiene in the five years to 2014/15. Approximately 90% of these results were delivered in rural communities.

DFID supports large programmes focussed on basic rural water and sanitation services for the poor. These include programmes with the governments of Ethiopia and Mozambique and a programme implemented by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and WaterAid in Nigeria.

Through partnerships with organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), DFID is supporting the water and sanitation sector in developing better and faster ways of delivering improved urban water and sanitation services in unserved slums and low income communities in towns and cities.