Developing countries throughout Asia have made impressive gains in sanitation improvement through efforts to reduce open defecation and improve toilet coverage, and hygienic citywide fecal sludge management programs have become critical.

Policy makers should focus on improving access to safely managed wastewater management services. Even though access to improved sanitation facilities has improved, progress in access to safely managed sanitation services is still slow. Globally, 4.5 billion people still lack access to safely managed sanitation.