A key finding of this report is that the TWG WSH region has succeeded in meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target for drinking-water and sanitation, which is to "halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation" (UN, 2017). Individually, nine TWG WSH countries achieved the MDG sanitation target, but four countries (i.e. Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia and the Philippines) did not. All TWG WSH countries met the MDG drinking-water target except Mongolia, which fell short of the target by 13 percentage points.

Overall, 77% of people in the TWG WSH region are using improved sanitation facilities, whereas 94% are using improved drinking-water sources (UNICEF and WHO, 2015). Despite an impressive effort made to provide drinking-water and sanitation infrastructure to the residents in this region, about one quarter of the population still lacks access to improved sanitation and 7% lacks access to improved drinking-water. Water-related diseases, including diarrhoeal diseases, are significant causes of death among children under 5 years old in the region. Almost 30 000 people in the TWG WSH region, especially children under 5, die each year due to water, sanitation and hygiene related diseases (WHO, 2014).