In Sub-Saharan Africa, a significant challenge shadows the region’s progress: a shortage of safe drinking water and inadequate sanitation. Navigating the complex terrain of water security, the region aims to meet the UN’s 2030 goal for universal clean water access. Our study unfolds through concise visual data, revealing strides and persistent challenges in this dynamic journey toward water security.
Access to Drinking Water:
Our visuals reveal a clear gap: some have basic drinking water, while others enjoy secure sources. Although progress is evident in safer water access, a significant part of the population still faces risks with basic water. Our first visual has two lines: one for basic, potentially compromised water, and the other for safe, uncontaminated sources. We can see that the latter is on the rise, indicating progress. However, a substantial majority still relies on the basic, less secure option.
Access to Sanitation and Handwashing Services:
Moving onto sanitation, our graph reveals that access to both basic and safely managed sanitation services is extremely low in sub-Saharan Africa with the latter not exceeding 24%. A further divide can be seen for the access to these services among rural and urban populations where 35% of the urban population have access to handwashing facilities in 2022 while only 17% of the rural population enjoy that same access.
A Path to Sustainable Solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa
Amidst these challenges, a potential solution emerges which consists of strategic policies concerning water safety aligned with established UN development initiatives. By integrating comprehensive water safety and sanitation measures into broader development frameworks, Sub-Saharan African nations can make significant strides in addressing water scarcity and access to sanitation services.
These could materialize through policies that prioritize investments in water infrastructure, that emphasize water quality monitoring, and that promote sustainable water management practices. Such policies could leverage technological innovations, community engagement, and cross-sectoral collaboration to ensure the equitable distribution of safe water and sanitation services to Sub-Saharan countries.
As a point of reference, we can take Mauritius, an African nation with a very high percentage of access to water and sanitation services. This success story demonstrates that with the right policies and strategic initiatives, achieving substantial progress in water security is not only possible but has already been realized in certain regions of the continent.
Conclusion:
Millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene. Achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require a 6-fold increase in current global rates of progress on drinking water, a 5-fold increase for sanitation, and an 8-fold increase for hygiene.
Our proposed solution envisions a collaborative effort between Sub-Saharan African nations and global development partners, leveraging proven strategies to overcome the challenges of water scarcity and sanitation. Following this path involves a commitment to sustainable policies, technological innovation, and community empowerment, which will ultimately transform the narrative of water security and improve access to sanitation services in the region.
African countries face a critical water situation, with millions lacking access to clean and safe water sources
According to the United Nations, about 40% of the world’s population lack access to the least basic water needs and with the global temperatures on the rise this number is expected to further increase. In line with its vision for the year 2030, the United Nations is developing a series of targets such as eliminating water sources pollution and increasing international cooperation, however until today not much has done to ensure that this goal will be met by year 2030.
African countries have the highest mortality rates related to unsafe water sanitation
As shown in the above heatmap, the highest mortality rates related to unsafe water in year 2019 belonged to countries from the African continent solely with Lesotho and Chad leading the way with 108.1 and 99.2 deaths coming from unsafe water sources respectively. In addition, as displayed in the above map, the African continent is clearly in a critical situation with less than half of the population receiving access to basic water services in most of its countries.
Increasing international cooperation can improve the African water situation
To address the critical water situation, a multifaceted solution involves improving water infrastructure, implementing sustainable water management practices, raise awareness and avoid water pollution. However, as known for its weak economic situation, most of the African countries are not currently capable to develop such infrastructural expansions, highlighting the need of an international cooperation to solve the critical water situation in Africa.
Integrated programs can scale and validate the proposed solutions to solve the current situation
Series of programs led and initiated by international partners can be used to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed solutions, including the sustainable water usage and pollution control to restore the ecosystems in Africa and ensure that the whole population is receiving access to the least basic water services. In addition, the programs will ensure the global collaboration discussed above.
All stakeholders should proceed immediately
As mentioned above, the United nation clearly stated that much has to be done to be in line with the SDG goals of year 2030. In this regard, we recommended to focus on clear policies that call for an immediate action plan to ensure those goals. But most importantly, we recommend all stakeholders to proceed immediately as the African continent is in a desperate water situation while mortality rates are going through the roof.
For more info, read the following articles: https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/sustainable-development-goals/why-do-sustainable-development-goals-matter/goal-6
Team: Jana Chazbeck, Olguinia El Ferzli, Josephine Kaadou, Haydar Hamdan and Rawane Ibrahim.
Note that you can watch the videos here if you faced any technical or connections issues while visiting the website:
Reinvented toilets video:
Volunteers video:
Thank You for visiting our website!
The mortality rate in Africa countries is very high compared to other countries worldwide. One cause of the mortality rate is the unintentional poisoning especially children. Because of the high poverty rate, low access to water, and high literacy rate, people are not much aware of the importance of hygenie and sanitation. This is causing a high mortality rate due to the unsafe water, sanitation and lack of hygiene. There is lot of unintentional poisoning cases in Africa compared to other countries in different continents. The problem is very serious and needs immediate response since its contribution to the overall mortality rate is high.
A response of the addressed problem is curing the poisoned case; however, the capacity in hospitals is low as the number of beds per 1000 persons is very low. Therefore, we are looking forward to solve the root problem and not only react to it. So, a good solution for the addressed problem is to increase awareness of how to avoid poisoning especially at home by the government, or related parties.
The awarness should takle these three aspects:
-How to clean food (vegetables, fruits) at home
-Filtering water with basic tools
-Right way of taking a medicine and storing it
-Right way to use chemicals or detergents and keep them away from children
More than 90% of poisoning cases are occurring at home. Therefore, starting to spread awareness of how to avoid getting poisoned at home might reduce the unintentional poisoning that is causing death. Thus, we are decreasing the mortality rate.
It’s true that we want to solve the problem from its base; however, we should also know how to provide good care and treatment for a poisoned case. This should be teached to people as first aid sessions to be eligible to approach a case and prevent the deterioration of his health or death.
The mortality rate in Africa countries is very high compared to other countries worldwide. One cause of the mortality rate is the unintentional poisoning especially children. Because of the high poverty rate, low access to water, and high literacy rate, people are not much aware of the importance of hygenie and sanitation. This is causing a high mortality rate due to the unsafe water, sanitation and lack of hygiene. There is lot of unintentional poisoning cases in Africa compared to other countries in different continents. The problem is very serious and needs immediate response since its contribution to the overall mortality rate is high.
A response of the addressed problem is curing the poisoned case; however, the capacity in hospitals is low as the number of beds per 1000 persons is very low. Therefore, we are looking forward to solve the root problem and not only react to it. So, a good solution for the addressed problem is to increase awareness of how to avoid poisoning especially at home by the government, or related parties.
The awarness should takle these three aspects:
-How to clean food (vegetables, fruits) at home
-Filtering water with basic tools
-Right way of taking a medicine and storing it
-Right way to use chemicals or detergents and keep them away from children
More than 90% of poisoning cases are occurring at home. Therefore, starting to spread awareness of how to avoid getting poisoned at home might reduce the unintentional poisoning that is causing death. Thus, we are decreasing the mortality rate.
It’s true that we want to solve the problem from its base; however, we should also know how to provide good care and treatment for a poisoned case. This should be teached to people as first aid sessions to be eligible to approach a case and prevent the deterioration of his health or death.
