Why write about water and sanitation in Africa?
Did you know that every day nearly 1000 children die due to preventable water and sanitation related diarrheal diseases ? Or that 2 in 5 people don’t have access to a basic hand washing facility (with soap and water)? Welcome to the WASH web, where over the following weeks I will be exploring some of the key issues related to water and sanitation in Africa. Including access to ‘improved’ water, toilets and handwashing and women and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Globally there is an unequal distribution in the deaths attributed to unsafe water. Figure 1 shows that Sub-Saharan Africa has much higher death rates than other regions – with some countries, such as Chad having over 100 deaths per 100,000 people. Therefore, improving water and sanitation in Africa is critical if SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) is to be met by 2030. Figure 1: Map to show global distribution in death rates from unsafe water sources, 2019 My interest in water and sanitation cam