• The coverage of the improved sanitation was 12% in 2004 and 19.3% in 2008. The rate of growth of the use of improved sanitation in the country is 1.83% per year, which implies that by 2015 it possible to reach the coverage of 32.11% in use of improved sanitation. The national target is 50%.
• The rate of use of improved sanitation in the rural areas increased from 4% in 2004 to 6% in 2008, i.e., a growth of 0.5% of the rate of use per year. At this speed, by 2015 the country could achieve a rate of use of improved rural sanitation of about 9.5%.
• The rate of use of improved urban sanitation was 43% in 2004 and increased to 47% in 2008. This represents a growth of 3.25% per year in this period, implying that at this speed, by 2015 the rate of use of improved urban sanitation will be about 70%.
• The use of improved sanitation in Mozambique is larger in the three southern provinces of the country, namely in Maputo, Maputo City and Gaza.
• With the exception of Maputo City, which has a rate of use of improved sanitation of 82% for 2007 and 84.6% for 2008, none of the country’s provinces has a rate of use of improved sanitation of more than 50%.
• With the exception of the provinces of Niassa, Cabo Delgado, Manica and Tete, all the other provinces showed an improvement in the rate of usage of improved sanitation from 2007 to 2008.
• The province with the lowest rate of use of improved sanitation was the province of Zambezia with 4.9% usage while in 2008 it was Tete Province, with a rate of 3.4%.
• Comparing the rates of use of improved sanitation by wealth quintile in 2008, we observe a strong association between the rate of use of improved sanitation and the families’ level of wealth. While the highest wealth quintile has a rate of use of improved sanitation of 71.5%, the rate of use of improved sanitation in the lowest wealth quintile is zero; the second poorest quintile has a rate of use of improved sanitation of 0.1%.

Source: Report on the Millennium Development Goals - Mozambique 2010