Read the passage and answer the following questions.
In 2019, WHO and UNICEF published the latest figures on clean water and sanitation in the world. The figures were for the year 2017. More than 785 million people did not have even basic water services. The share of people using safely managed drinking water had gone up from 61% in 2000 to 71%. Over 3 billion people used safely managed sanitation services, but 673 million still practised open defecation. About 3 billion people had no proper facilities to wash their hands safely at home. Where schools lack toilets, girls who reach puberty are more likely to miss school than boys.
Millions of people suffer from neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as Guinea worm disease, trachoma and schistosomiasis. Many of these diseases are linked to water or hygiene. They are found most often in places with unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and poor hygiene. Unsafe drinking water contributed to 72% of deaths from diarrhoea, and unsafe sanitation to about 56%.
Water, sanitation and hygiene could prevent at least 9% of the world’s disease burden and 6% of all deaths. In the U.S., money spent on water filtration and chlorination in the first half of the 20th century is estimated to have brought back 23 times its value in public health. Water and sanitation interventions are cost-effective in every region of the world.
The United Nations aims to give every person basic and safely managed water and sanitation by 2030. To meet this goal, an estimated 2.2 billion people still need safely managed drinking water, 4.2 billion need safely managed sanitation and 3 billion need basic handwashing facilities.
The word interventions, as used in the passage, means
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → actions taken to improve a situation
The passage says that “Water and sanitation interventions are cost-effective”.
- Cost-effective means giving good results for the money spent.
- The line before it speaks of money spent on water filtration and chlorination. These are steps taken to make water safe.
- So interventions here means actions taken to improve a situation. Example: Quick interventions by the doctors saved the injured boy.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: arguments between nations — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: The passage does not talk about any quarrel between countries. It talks about steps to give people clean water.
Option 3: delays in getting help — Incorrect. Opposite meaning: The interventions bring help, such as filtered and chlorinated water. A delay in help cannot give good results for the money spent.
Option 4: rules that forbid something — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: The passage speaks of money spent on filtration and chlorination. These are actions, not rules that stop people from doing something.