Access to water supply and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa has increased over the past two decades. However, compared with other developing regions, coverage levels in much of the region remain relatively low. Progress has been uneven between countries and between urban and rural areas, and many communities continue to face limited access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation services. Access to improved water supply had increased from 49% in 1990 to 68% in 2015, while access to improved sanitation had only risen from 28% to 31% in that same period. Sub-Saharan Africa did not meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 1990–2015) of halving the share of the population without access to safe drinking water and sanitation between 1990 and 2015.WHO/UNESCO (2010). Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-water: 2010 Update. Geneva: WHO press.JMP 2010 Update There still exists large disparities among sub-Saharan African countries, and between the urban and rural areas.
Usually, water is provided by utilities in urban areas and municipalities or community groups in rural areas. Sewerage networks are not common and wastewater treatment is even less common. Sanitation is often in the form of individual pit latrines or shared toilets. 70% of investments in water supply and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa are financed internally and only 30% is financed externally (2001–2005 average). Most of the internal financing is household self-finance ($2.1bn), which is primarily for on-site sanitation such as latrines. Public sector financing ($1.2bn) is almost as high as external financing (US$1.4bn). The contribution of private commercial financing has been negligible at $10 million only.
Water resources
Groundwater
Groundwater plays a key role in sustaining water supplies and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa especially due to its widespread availability, generally high quality, and intrinsic ability to buffer episodes of drought and increasing climate variability.
Yet there is limited sources available to provide clean drinkable water in Africa, one of the research cstudies onducted in 2007 has shown that over 40% of Africans use groundwater as their main source of drinking water, particularly in North and Southern African countries.
Piped water is still the most important source of drinking water (39%) in urban areas, yet boreholes are becoming more important (24%). The WHO (2006) stated that, in 2004, only 16% of people in sub-Saharan Africa had access to drinking water through a household connection (an indoor tap or a tap in the yard). Even when there is available water in these places, there is poor access to readily accessible drinking water, as there are risks of contamination due to several factors. Factors such as poor maintenance due to limited financial resources, pollution and poor sanitation sometimes due to limited financial resources. When wells are built and water sanitation facilities are developed, sometimes water quality testing is not performed as often as is necessary, and lack of education among the people utilizing the water source.
Surface water
World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2015 reported that about 159 million people fetched untreated surface water from lakes, ponds, rivers and streams globally. Surface water sources in Africa are sometimes highly polluted. Factors such as sewage discharges, oil pollution, industrial factors, etc. For example, in a study conducted in Nigeria, major pollutants were found within the surrounding water, including agrochemical runoff, urban waste, and industrial effluents. In another case study conducted in Madagascar, Uganda, and Rwanda, researchers found that there were key contaminants polluting the bodies of water across all regions. These pollutants included E. coli, nitrates, and heavy metals. All of these contaminants found in the water created big concerns with the water safety for the people living in these areas.
Harvested rainwater is a minor source of water for many households, but its availability is unreliable because it depends on rainfall patterns. Although rainwater is relatively pure when it falls, it can become contaminated by dust, debris, animal droppings, and pollutants during collection and storage, so treatment may be required before drinking.
Impacts of climate change
The effects of climate change on the water cycle will have repercussions on the availability of water resources for human uses in Africa. For example, there will be changes to precipitation patterns, i.e. how much rain falls when and where.
Climate change is expected to amplify existing stress on water availability in Africa, however this impact is likely to be modest compared to drivers such as population growth, urbanization, agricultural growth and land-use change. While multiple factors will impact water availability in Africa, climate change will contribute to water shortages in North Africa and Southern Africa. In North Africa, climate change may account for 22% of the total water shortage in the region. Climate change as well as socio-economic drivers are also expected to intensify water scarcity in Southern Africa as increasing temperatures and variable rainfall lead to reduced streamflows in rivers across the region. Climate change is also likely to result in increased hydrological extremes, such as droughts, which are expected to last longer and happen more often in Southern Africa, placing considerable stress on water supply.
In East Africa changes in water resources are uncertain, as climate models in the region predict either increases or decreases in total rainfall over the region. Increasing temperature may increase evaporation and lead to shrinking glaciers and ice cover, which may place strain on water resource. However future projects indicate an increase in the intensity of rainfall which is likely to result in increased streamflows in regions such as the Lake Victoria Basin.
Water-related gender inequality Across sub-Saharan Africa, access to sanitary water remains a significant challenge, particularly affecting women, who are often responsible for collecting water for their households. A study conducted in rural Zimbabwe found that women walk an average of 4 km daily to fetch water. During periods of drought, these trips can become even longer due to increased water scarcity. Drought conditions have also been linked to a higher likelihood of water point violence, which disproportionately affects women, as they make up the majority of water collectors. To reduce the risks associated with long journeys and water point violence, it has been suggested that policymakers invest in water infrastructure closer to residential areas. A study conducted in Ghana found that reduced access to water was associated with lower self-reported health and less relaxation time among women, who are primarily responsible for water collection in many households across Ghana and other communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings indicated that for each additional hour spent collecting water, there was a corresponding decrease in the rate at which women reported feeling healthy.
Access
General trends
In sub-Saharan Africa access to water supply and sanitation has improved, but the region lags behind all other developing regions: access to safe drinking water had increased from 49% in 1990 to 60% in 2008, while in the same time span access to improved sanitation had only risen from 28% to 31%. Sub-Saharan Africa did not meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving the share of the population without access to safe drinking water and sanitation between 1990 and 2015.
These trends in water supply and sanitation are directly reflected in health: the under-five child mortality had significantly decreased worldwide, but Sub-Saharan Africa showed the slowest pace of progress.UN-WATER (2009) The United Nations World Water Development Report 3: Water in a Changing World. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.WWR 2009
The targets set under the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 have, unlike the Millennium Development Goals, drinking water and sanitation reported separately – i.e., targets for access to safe and affordable drinking water (target 6.1) and adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene (target 6.2). Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Particularly, Sustainable Development Goal SDG6 focuses on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. The SDGs have also included reporting on hygiene, that was missing within the MDGs. Access to hygiene facilities in particular is a major barrier to achieving combined SDG access, reducing coverage in SSA from 19.7% to 4.4% (data from 2017).
In 2020, 65% of the global population were using piped water (83% urban and 42% rural). Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Piped water counts as an improved water source.Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000–2022: special focus on gender. New York: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO), 2023 Overall, sub-Saharan Africa is lagging, with 35% of the population using piped water (56% urban and 20% rural). Within these statistics, access to safely managed drinking water varies within and between large cities, medium and small-towns.
With regard to WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) in schools, data from 2019 showed that "Africa reports basic provision of WASH services in schools at 44 percent for drinking water, 47 percent for sanitation and 26 per cent for hygiene".Hope, R., Katuva, J., Nyaga, C., Koehler, J., Charles, K., Nowicki, S., Dyer, E., Olago, D., Tanui, F., Trevett, A., Thomas, M., and Gladstone, N. (2021). Delivering safely-managed water to schools in Kenya. REACH Working Paper 8, University of Oxford, UK. ISBN 978-1-874370-82-6 In general, children who go to schools in ruralareals have less access to good WASH services than urban children.
Limited access to clean water has been shown to affect children in various ways. A case study in Ghana found that insufficient access to water was associated with lower school attendance rates among children. Additionally, limited access to water and cooking fuel was linked to lower academic performance, with the study noting an impact on test scores in subjects such as mathematics and English.
National differences There are large disparities amongst countries in the Sub-Saharan region. Access to safe drinking water varies from 38% in Ethiopia to 91% in South Africa, while access to improved sanitation fluctuates from 11% in Burkina Faso to 77% in South Africa. The situation in Ivory Coast is significantly better, with the access to improved drinking water source at 82%
The urban-rural disparities
In the entire sub-Saharan region, water supply and sanitation coverage in urban areas is almost double the coverage in rural areas, both for water (83% in urban areas, 47% in rural areas) as for sanitation (44% vs. 24%). Yet, the rural areas improve at fa ast pace, whereas in urban areas, the extension of water supply and sanitation infrastructure can barely keep up with the fast urban demographic growth.
Different interpretations of access