Introduction

As a continent, Africa has the lowest proportion of population with access to safe water and only 38% have access to improved sanitation facilities (UNEP, 2012). Evidently, this has a profound negative impact on human wellbeing. Without a dependable source of clean freshwater human welfare will tend to be inextricably low. Along with obvious problems of dehydration, insufficient freshwater also leaves citizens unable to feed livestock or water crops. Furthermore, water-born diseases, such as Cholera and Typhoid fever, kill an estimated 2 million people every year (WWF, 2017). Water is a fundamental component of a healthy human life, yet an estimated 1.1 billion people still lack freshwater access and 2.7 billion experience water scarcity at least once a year (WWF, 2017).

So, why then are development efforts not solely focused on improving reliable, clean water provision in Africa? Why aren’t millions of water bottles being shipped or – as has been suggested – giant icebergs floated up from Antarctica to solve the continents obvious water shortages?

In reality, things are far more complex. There are a myriad of problems to be faced before adequate water security in Africa is achieved. Perhaps the first is identifying what it actually means to be ‘water secure’ and indeed understanding that water problems in Africa lie not in volume, but rather in distribution (Taylor, 2010). In most areas of the continent, water is ample. Yet, it is difficulties of access and reliability that produce persistent water scarcity.

Throughout this blog, I will be looking at some of the human and physical constraints on water security in Africa with a particular focus on sanitation. As part of this, I will explore the importance of sanitation and how it relates to issues of water security and access. I will then examine current approaches using case studies and wider analysis to develop my own understanding before suggesting how best to proceed. I am particularly interested in how water and sanitation access relates to asymmetries of power at both an individual and national levels.

In my next post, I will look at current policy approaches to water security and indeed how the concept can be suitably measured and understood.