Introduction

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.