This is the first of a series of blog posts
on the issues that Africa faces in terms of water and sanitation. I’m no expert
on this matter (obviously), but I’ll be giving my input as best I can, making
use of the readings I’ve done
We’ve heard all about how Africa is facing
problems with water and sanitation, but do we really know the extent of it?
Sub-Saharan Africa currently faces a huge challenge; 358 million people in the
region lack access to clean water whilst approximately 600 million lack access
to proper sanitation facilities.
The Millennium Development Goal of halving
the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by
2015, quite obviously had fallen short of its target by the review time. The
2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which follow on from the Millennium
Development Goals, make it quite evident that there is a severe problem
relating to water in the developing world. One of the eight goals is to ‘ensure
availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’, with
various sub-goals within this overriding target. Although during the review of
the MDGs in 2015, Sub-Saharan Africa had made some headway, especially with
relation to health and education, whilst the North Africa had progressed and
met the targets of poverty and hunger reduction, and sanitation. However,
despite this improvement, 70% of Africa’s population still suffers from lack of
access to improved sanitation facilities.
It is therefore clear that water and
sanitation are topical issues in Africa. Over the course of this module (and
perhaps longer!), I will be looking more in depth at the problems and potential
solutions of this huge challenge that Africa is facing.
