Looking at a Sustainable Future

Hi and welcome to my final blog post! Over the past few weeks I have explored different issues relating to the water and sanitation crisis in Africa. For this final post, I will briefly explore the road to a sustainable future for Africa's water and sanitation.  

Briefly mentioned in previous blogposts is Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) - to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030 (UN 2018). The proposal of SDG 6  is an improvement of the Millennium Development Goal 7 (MDG 7) which targeted to decrease the population that did not have sustainable access to water and basic sanitation by 50% before 2015 but was not achieved. SDG 6 has additionally dimensions to address the faults of MDG 7, including affordability, accessibility, and water quality (Weststrate et al. 2018). 

Figure 1: Outline of SDG 6 Targets 

Now that we are swiftly approaching 2030, it is important to track any progress and reflect on what further changes need to and could be done to ensure this SDG is met. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, the SDG is not on target for 2030 and is illustrated in the 2018 UN SDG implementation review (UN 2018). This report outlines each target under the SDG and what still needs to be done, acknowledging the need for political engagement, financial support, and capacity. 

Factors including climate change and population growth need to be considered when working towards these goals. As climate change can have a critical impact on water and sanitation through the increase in water-borne disease as a result of more frequent and intense floods (Cann et al. 2013). Not only can floods contaminate drinking water supplies leading to the outbreak of diseases such as diarrhoea, but they can also lead to significant damages to existing sewers and waste management infrastructures which tend to not be as resilient in SSA as they are in more developed regions.

Taking this all into consideration, evidently future of water and sanitation is unknown. It is important that not only governments and stakeholders, but also the local people are showing their support. This includes using education as a way to increase awareness of the crisis which the low-income communities currently face. Campaigns such as World Toilet Day are a great way of bringing light to a different theme every year. Additionally, living in the digital world we do, using social media to create a platform is also highly beneficial. Particularly ones that pressurise political parties, financial supporters, and the public to wake up and face the realities of water and sanitation in Africa and the urgency for a sustainable future to provide water sanitation for all. 

To conclude, I'd like to express how much I have enjoyed writing this blog and how much I have learnt throughout the process. I was quite naïve going into this module, thinking it would be straightforward and easy to write about. Yet as the course went on, I was exposed to a greater level of depth and complexity to the issue of water and sanitation. I hope that by reading my posts you too have been informed on the crisis Africa faces, as well as sparked your interest to engage further with the topic. 

Thank you for reading, and goodbye!