Population, territory and sustainable development

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population have this service in their homes; in others (Argentina, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,
Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and Peru) the share ranges from 80% to 89%. The
lowest percentages of access to potable water are in the Dominican Republic and the Plurinational State
of Bolivia, with under 50%. Access to sanitation is generally lower than for water and electricity: only
two countries (Chile and Costa Rica) have a rate of over 95%; seven countries range between 70% and
89%. At the other extreme, just 46% of the urban population of Nicaragua has sanitation in their homes;
in Paraguay the figure is 16% (see table VIII.9).
Table VIII.9
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN (SELECTED COUNTRIES): INDICATORS FOR ACCESS
TO BASIC SERVICES IN URBAN AREAS, CENSUS DATA FROM THE 2000s
(Percentages)
Country
With
access to
potable water
Proportion of the population
With
access to
sanitation
With
access to
electricity
Living in
houses made of
conventional
building
materials
Secure
tenure
index
With
access to
potable water
Proportion of households
With
sanitation
available
Connected
to electric
utility
Argentina 87.9 74.7 97.8 97.8 65.6 90.1 78.1 98.0
Bolivia (Plurinational
State of) 48.8 58.7 90.3 99.2 33.9 49.1 60.2 89.5
Brazil 88.8 54.0 98.4 … 48.8 90.2 56.4 98.7
Chile 98.9 97.1 99.1 92.4 88.2 98.8 97.0 98.9
Costa Rica 96.7 96.0 99.7 87.5 87.4 96.6 96.2 99.7
Dominican Republic 46.2 70.3 98.9 95.9 47.7 45.7 70.4 98.6
Ecuador 89.5 63.4 96.0 87.5 52.9 90.8 66.4 96.6
El Salvador 87.5 70.9 95.4 91.8 1.3 88.2 73.0 95.4
Guatemala 89.0 69.2 94.4 79.3 55.2 89.5 72.0 95.1
Honduras 50.6 72.7 92.2 95.6 63.9 51.2 74.2 92.6
Mexico 91.7 77.7 98.1 91.2 66.3 92.2 78.8 98.2
Nicaragua 62.7 42.8 93.0 88.2 2.5 63.2 44.0 92.8
Panama 79.1 68.9 97.5 97.9 60.8 78.8 70.7 97.2
Paraguay 54.8 16.2 97.4 99.2 10.9 55.5 17.2 97.2
Peru 79.5 78.1 90.8 93.6 59.9 78.5 77.2 89.6
Venezuela (Bolivarian
Republic of) 89.3 89.7 97.9 91.7 74.3 90.3 90.9 98.9
Source: Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre (CELADE) - Population Division of ECLAC, Spatial distribution and
urbanization in Latin America and the Caribbean (DEPUALC) database.
These data are similar to the findings of 2006 and 2007 household surveys, which show that over
80% of urban households have potable water and that the figure is over 90% in more than two thirds of
the countries. As with the census data, the figures show that access to sanitation continues to be the
weakest component of basic urban sanitation services: in some countries, less than a third of the urban
population has access (Jordán and Martínez, 2009).
These data suggest that in the majority of countries, access to basic services is high in urban
areas, which points to the gradual resolution of a complex and crucial deficit that affects health, spending
(one way or another, households have to gain access to these services, especially water, and they often
pay a higher cost than under formal distribution) and the quality of life of people and households that do
not have access to these services. But the findings also reveal that quantitative problems remain, either
because the growth of the urban population in specific areas was not foreseen, because the basic
infrastructure has deteriorated due to lack of maintenance or because certain areas (typically, informal