Water, it is arguably one of the most valuable resources on planet earth, not only does it contribute heavily to agricultural and industrial processes, it sustains human life and improves our health. In nineteenth-century London, it was John Snow who discovered the correlation between contaminated water and disease in the city (Caincross, 2003). Following this discovery, great advances have been made in the UK to improve domestic sanitation which has reduced the risk of disease. Unfortunately, there are still countries today who have not been able to make these same advances in water supply and sanitation, and so this blog will be focusing on those, specifically those countries within Africa.
Globally there are many initiatives to address the problem of inadequate sanitation, through improving sanitation facilities. An improved sanitation facility is one which separates faeces from human contact (UNICEF and World Health Organisation, 2015). Globally today, there are approximately 2.4 billion people who do not have access to an improved sanitation facility (UNICEF, n.d.). The map below (figure 1) shows the percentage of the population using improved sanitation facilities in 2015; it is clear to see that Sub-Saharan Africa is facing great issues regarding its sanitation facilities.
This is an interactive map, providing information on a time scale of 1990-2015, I strongly recommend clicking on the link and watching how the rest of the world has changed over time, whilst Sub-Saharan Africa has lagged behind.
The issue in Africa surrounding water and sanitation is not widely a volume problem, in many African countries there is enough water. Rather there are issues with managing the water sources they have and preventing the water from being contaminated. It is reported that in a majority of African cities (apart from Northern and South Africa), 50% of water supply is wasted (Kauffmann, 2007).Many Sub-Saharan African countries are also plagued by financial issues, if there is an increased access to financial resources, there is a potential to both increase water supply and reduce the risk of contamination.
Sub-Saharan Africa is slowly making achievements towards improving their water and sanitation crisis, for example, annually between 1990 and 2004, 10 million people have gained access to improved drinking water (Kauffmann, 2007). Despite these advances, the continent of Africa still has a long way to go in improving water and sanitation and faces further challenges in the future as population sizes continue to grow. In this blog, I will discuss the issues surrounding water sanitation in Africa and also examine different approaches in alleviating the sanitation problem.
