In a startling revelation, a report made public during the fifth South Asian Conference on Sanitation (Sacosan) on Tuesday says more than 675 million people in South Asia still practice open defecation. It shows that around half of the total 2.5 billion people without access to improved sanitation across the globe belong to the Saarc region. Afghanistan, with only 29 percent people having access to improved sanitation, is at the bottom among the eight Saarc countries. Nepal, with 35 percent coverage, stands at the bottom third after Afghanistan and India. Maldives with 98 percent sanitation ranks first, followed by Sri Lanka with 91 percent and Bhutan 53 percent. A regional report of Unicef shows that more than 30 percent of total 1.68 million schools in the region lack toilets and water facility. “Despite an impressive progress in the sanitation in last two decades, South Asia still has lowest sanitation coverage in the world,” said Stephen Adkisson, deputy regional director of Unicef Rosa at the inaugural session of Sacosan. “The disparity among of sanitation coverage in rich and poor and urban and rural population is the biggest challenge in the region.” Though access to sanitation among the rich is over 90 percent, it is around five percent among the poor. The National Census of Nepal 2011 shows 7.4 million (28 percent) of total 26.62 million people practice open defecation in the country. So far 10 out of 75 districts, 12 out of 58 municipalities and 1,042 of 3,915 VDCs have been declared open defecation free (ODF). Amarawati of Nawalparasi district is the country’s only VDC till date with total sanitation. Apart from ODF, total sanitation includes washing hands, having hygienic food, access to clean drinking water and clean surrounding areas. The Hygiene and Sanitation Master Plan 2011 aims to ensure access to basic sanitation and water facility by 2017. According to the government assessment, the annual investment will have to be increased to $85 million from the current $43 million to achieve the targets in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Wash)sector as per the master plan developed after the fourth Sacosan meeting in Sri Lanka in 2011. The governments from the eight countries, unveiling the 14-point Colombo Declaration, have committed to recognising the right to sanitation and developing time-bound plans as well as allocating and mobilising resources to meet all previous commitments.